Zimbabwe run-off election day
wrap-up

Zimbabwe, Harare --Zimbabwe held a run-off election Friday with the
opposition leader advising supporters to vote for veteran President Robert
Mugabe, the only candidate in the poll, rather than put their safety at
risk.Seven bodies of MDC supporters were discovered yesterday at Spillway
Dam in Epworth. Since the defeat of Zanu PF on the 29th of March 2008, Epworth
has been the hardest hit suburb. Zanu PF youth militias were frequently captured
on camera pursuing MDC supporters and burning their homes.

By the time of going to press we could not capture names and details of the
deceased.

SA embassy evicts refugees

ABOUT 300 Epworth residents who took refuge at the South African embassy on
Sunday 22 June after violence erupted in the high density suburb are being
evicted from the embassy by the police. The Director of Social Welfare in the
Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Sydney Mhishi and United
Nations Country Rep, Augustino Zacharias and a high-ranking official from South
African embassy are overseeing the eviction. Reports received by the Crisis
Coalition Information Team are that the 300 displaced persons are destined for a
refugee camp in Ruwa. Details of the reasons for the eviction are still sketchy.

Journalist arrested

Today, around 0935 hours, journalist, Frank Chikowore was arrested at Mhofu
Primary School in the high density suburb of Highfields together with his
cameraman, whom we could only identify as Edgar.Chikowore and Edgar were
arrested while filming President Robert Mugabe casting his vote in an election
where his is the only candidate.

The duo was briefly detained at the
notorious Southerton police station before they disappeared.Their legal
teams have confirmed that the two are now missing. The police station is
maintaining that they have been transferred to Harare Central Law and Order
Section while officers at Harare Central are declining that they took the
journalists.

War Vets conduct elections….

In Chipinge, war veterans were implicated in managing polling stations. At
the ZBS open space, war veterans were recording voters’ home addresses, national
identity numbers, ballot paper serial numbers and taking their finger prints.

The marauding group of 25 war veterans is threatening those who vote against
President Robert Mugabe.In Shamva and Marondera, Mashonaland East, the village
headmen are forcing teachers to declare that they are illiterate, failure of
which they would be beaten up. The teachers were assisted to vote by the village
headmen.

Chaos in Manicaland

Clayton Gombarume, a staunch Zanu PF activist led a violence offensive
campaign in Makoni West, Manicaland beating up members of the following
families; Diya, Japajapa, Tembani, Chitsva, Madede and Manyenga.

30 GAPWUZ activists beaten

30 members of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of
Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), polling agents and MDC councilors have been beaten up over
the past week by ZANU PF supporters in Karoi and surrounding areas over their
support for the opposition.6 of the 30 activists are being treated at a hospital
inKaroi.

The ZANU PF youth militia forced scores of voters in Morgenster in Masvingo
to go and cast their votes for ZANU PF candidate Robert Mugabe. The youths have
launched operation Chigunwe Tione (Lets See YourFinger) to see if people had
voted or not. Those whose finger does not show red ink are brutalized.The
operation is meant to flush out those who heeded opposition and civil society
calls to boycott the presidential run-off.

Other reports:

Sokwanele : 27 June 2008

No one queuing to vote at City Hall (12.50 pm),
Bulawayo. Usually one of the busiest city centre polling stations.

THE BOYCOTT IS A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

It is starting to look like the boycott has proven highly successful,
particularly, as expected, in urban areas. The turnout is interesting because
the country’s urban areas have been under an onslaught of violence, intimidation
and hate speech. The towns have been swamped with people in Zanu PF regalia, and
the omnibuses and taxis plastered with Zanu PF posters. So much so that many
have been worried that this would force voters into the polling stations.

It's not very often that we see an absence of queues in Zimbabwe and today
was one of them. This, we think, is a positive sign for future - a future where
we don't have to queue for everything we need. The nationwide trend is a clear
message to the dictator, he is not wanted!

Emgwanani Nketa
1.40pm

However, it isn't all positive news. We cannot pretend that violence is not
happening and some of the reports we have received talk of intimidation and
coercion, people being forced to vote, and threats of retributive violence to
follow. The bodies of seven murdered people were found at Spillway Dam in
Epworth today. We ask all Zimbabweans to be very careful in these days that
follow, to take care of themselves and do what is needed to keep safe.

Remember that the majority of the world, including regional countries, is
watching very closely and most have already said - before the polls even opened
- that the results from today could not possibly be considered free or fair.

It is very important that freedom loving Zimbabweans continue to do what they
have done for so many years now: stand strong and do not be tempted to resort to
violence. What sickens the world more than anything is the fact that this regime
is viciously aggressive towards a nation made up of people who are obviously
peaceloving and decent. No one can respect or admire a callous and cruel bully;
in fact, you could argue that a leader who beats up defenceless unarmed people
and rules through terror is the worst kind of coward there is. Tolerance among
those who once supported Robert Mugabe and his henchmen is wearing very
thin.

We are on a journey, a difficult and painful journey, but our destination is
peace. It's worth us all reaching deep inside ourselves to find the energy to
keep walking a little longer.

We have included a message from Morgan Tsvangirai at the end of this mailing,
sent today. Please can you take note of his messages to those who were forced to
vote against their will.

We would like to echo his words and say we are so sorry that some of you were
forced to do something you did not wish to, and that you have been struggling
with fear and uncertainty. We recognise that that must have been hard for you
when you wanted to stand with us. Please do not think you were alone when you
were forced to cast that ballot, because every single person who stayed away
today stayed away with thoughts of people like you in our heads and prayers for
your in our hearts. We are in this together, all the way and right to the end.

God bless our wonderful country and all of her people.

MORNING UPDATE

The Econet cellphone network, owned by Strive Masiyiwa, is all but defunct so
communications via cellphone are proving almost impossible. One wonders if the
sole state telephone controller has deliberately put a spanner in the works? In
addition, NetOne coverage is also very poor, and for the past two months it has
been almost impossible to buy pay top up cards for pay as you go lines, only for
contracts. The rumour is that the companies printing the top up cards were
forced to use their machinery to print Zanu PF cards.

Government knows that people are intending to spoil their votes if forced
into polling stations, so the word on the street is that most voters will have
to cast their ballots in the presence of a state agent.

Harare

The people of Harare have opted to stay at home today. By 8.30am polling
stations had processed an average of 20 voters each, a far cry from the 29/3
election when people had started queuing by 4am.

But the atmosphere is tense, with the expectation that midday will signal the
time when the state will galvanise their thugs to force people to vote. Many
activists have gone to ground, fearing for their lives, following the recent
information disseminated with the latest JOC strategy report leaked.

We hope and pray the observers will do their job today.

Bulawayo

It’s a beautiful winters day, deep blue skies and the sun is shining – a
great day to stay at home and relax.

Bulawayo has shown the dictator exactly what they think of him, the boycott
of the polling stations is complete. An activist did a drive around the city and
polling stations are morgue-like.

The Bulawayo City Hall, usually a fairly busy station due to its location in
the centre of town, is dead. Another usually busy polling station had had all of
3 voters by 9am and that is the pattern throughout the city!

Hey you
guys... psssst...... Sokwanele - Zvakwana! Get it?

In fact, all polling stations driven past, saw the police and polling agents
sitting outside sheepishly enjoying the morning sunhine and reading the daily
dose of propaganda from the state controlled "Chronic" newspaper.

Interestingly enough the Chronicle is on the streets, but so are yesterday’s
copies of the Sowetan and the South African Star. So, the government’s attempt
to deny all fair news coverage has been stymied by the sale of these papers, but
only for those who can afford it.

But the underground news network is in full swing. The streets around the
entire city are carpeted with red and white flyers, apparently distributed in
the early hours of the morning. A call came in early this morning from a high
density suburb to say, “Yesterday the streets were red, today they are white!"
An Ndebele version of the boycott flyer is the order of the day.

The other new addition adorning the streets are red spray painted V’s on
walls, street signs, on the roads, as well as a few beribboned trees and sign
posts. Somebody was busy last night!

By-Election in Pelandaba

As a by product of the boycott, the polling stations in this constituency are
also very slow, a clear indication that people do not believe in the legitimacy
of the election process.

Lowveld

Chiredzi polling stations are also enjoying poor turnout.

Right now people have been forced to gather at Triangle Stadium, where they
are being given papers and cards to go and vote.

Hippo Valley, Triangle and Mkwasine sugar estates have been the sites for
intensive “pungwes" for the past two months. People in these areas have said
they will go to vote and they will vote Zanu PF for the sake of their children.
Most people who in the past helped each other will not even talk to each
other.

Zaka

People are being forced out of their homes to go and vote.

Masvingo

Voting patterns are the same as all other urban centres, two or three voters
at most stations by mid morning. Victoria Falls/Hwange

Once again, polling stations are dead. Hwange residents have been threatened
with violence tomorrow if they do not turn out to vote.

AFTERNOON UPDATE

Harare

Just about the only people to be seen at the polling stations are the police,
still reading their newspapers. One activist reported they are entirely
miserable and when she attempted smiling at them she was given a distinct
growl.

Today’s election is a general non-event.

There are very few cars on the roads except for chefs and army personnel
smugly driving around in brand new state of the art sport and 4x4 vehicles.
Harare is now renowned for its high number of Mercedes Benzs. They are so new
the plastic on the head rests have not yet been removed. Whenever passing State
House one can see convoys of these vehicles.

Anxiety in the capital is high with rumours abounding that at the close of
poll anyone on the street will be attacked. It would be a good idea to
warn residents to stay home tonight after 7pm.

Another rumour that is circulating is that militia camps in the rural areas
are being shut down in order to move the perpetrators of violence into the urban
areas. Several activists have reported threats have been issued warning of
violence to come following the counting of ballots.

Chitungwiza

State agents are circulating in groups, forcing people to go to the polls and
escorting them to polling stations. They are being told to write down the number
of the ballot paper on their hands and have to show the number once they have
voted.

Mbare

It has been reported that there have been isolated cases of violence this
morning when forcing people to go vote.

Bulawayo

The highest turn out reported so far is in Paddonhurst, right next door to
Brady Barracks. The sum total of 5 voters were seen loitering in the queue
there! On the 29/3 the voting queue went right around the block, and this is the
only ward in the constituency where Zanu PF won.

The vast majority of polling stations visited have not one voter in the
queue.

The police surely must be tired of reading and rereading the Chronic. A
friend recently met a journalist from this esteemed rag and when she referred to
his paper as the Chronic, he responded, “Ah, you refer to my paper as a
disease!"

Gweru

Like all other centres very low turnout. There is an eerie calm in the town,
they have been warned of the "celebration" being prepare for by Zanu PF
tomorrow.

Kariba

It has been reported that you can hear a pin drop in this small town.
However, Zanu PF representatives went to all businesses yesterday and collected
ID Nos of all they could, threatening that they would check if the people had
voted. Kariba is such a small town that everyone knows everyone and so there
will probably be high turnout.

Lowveld

The town remains quiet and turnout is very low.

Nyathi

Boycott is successful, poor turnout. Voter turn out has been pitiful. The
beerhall had a better attendance. The few who did go to vote said they spoilt
their papers.

Masvingo

Boycott is successful, poor turnout. Once again, the same story. The only
station of any significance is the one close to the army barracks, where a
meagre 30 people were seen queueing in the morning.

Kadoma

Boycott is successful, poor turnout.

Chivhu

Boycott is successful, poor turnout.

Rural Areas

Most areas are sending in communications that people are being forced to
vote. One activist bemoaned the fact that he should have distributed pink ink in
advance so the thugs could not accuse anyone of not having a pink finger.

In one constituency the militia recently beat their own supporters who had
Zanu PF cards and T-shirts to show, but they were still battered - the militia
do not believe anyone any more. One wonders who they have voted for?

Statement by MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai

What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise in mass
intimidation with people all over the country being forced to vote.

Fortunately, Zimbabweans are attempting to stay away from the polls as they
can tell the difference between democracy and a dictatorship desperate for the
illusion of legitimacy.

There is nothing legitimate about this election process.

In many rural areas and some urban areas people were forced to spend the
night in the open outside the polling stations.

Today they have been ordered by militia to record the serial numbers of their
ballot papers to identify anyone that might vote for the MDC.

They are being told that before polls close they must gather again to await
the results.

These same militia are threatening anyone that doesn't vote or who votes for
the MDC with death.

Every voter in Zimbabwe has their little finger dipped in red ink. The
militia are warning that tomorrow they will launch Operation Red Finger that
will target anyone who has not voted.

We have also had reports that people are being forced to claim that they are
illiterate so that they are then accompanied into the polling booth by a member
of the militia.

And yet still millions of brave Zimbabweans are resisting these threats and
staying away from the polls.

Zimbabweans know that there is nothing legitimate about this election and
they know that there will be nothing legitimate about the result.

This is a view shared by many African and world leaders.

Anyone who recognizes the result of this election is denying the will of the
Zimbabwean people and standing in the way of a transition that will deliver
stability and prosperity not just to the country, but to the region.

I am heartened by the fact that so many African leaders are now working with
the MDC towards finding a lasting, peaceful solution to the Zimbabwean
crisis.

These African leaders realize that it is essential that Zimbabwe joins the
new Africa by joining the family of African nations where the people's right to
choose their leaders and live lives free of fear and oppression is of paramount
importance.

The end of this terrible, violent dictatorship is now assured, the people's
victory may have been delayed by this sham election but it will never be
denied.

The achievement of a New Zimbabwe where the government fulfills its
responsibility to provide a stable economy, jobs, health care and education is
now closer than ever.

Ink-stained finger voters hope will keep them alive

· Zimbabweans forced to
vote by militia· Some made to show ballot papers

Chris McGreal in
HarareThe Guardian,Saturday June 28, 2008

The young man who gave
his name only as Wilson wanted just one thing from yesterday's presidential
election in Zimbabwe: the indelible red ink on his little finger to show he
had voted.

"They said they would come to see if we voted," he said after
casting his ballot in a tent in a Harare suburb. "They know if we went to
vote we would have to vote for the president. They were
watching."

Who are "they"?

"The ones who made us go to the
meetings at night. The ones who told us we must be careful to correct our
mistake."

Wilson voted for Robert Mugabe yesterday, against his will but
judging that it was the best way to save himself from a beating or
worse.

So did many other Zimbabweans, driven to the polls by fear after a
bloody and relentless campaign of beatings, abductions and murders against
the voters by the ruling Zanu-PF to reverse Mugabe's humiliating defeat at
the hands of Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change leader
who beat him clearly in the first round of voting three months ago but
without an outright majority.

The state-run Herald newspaper
yesterday predicted a "massive" turnout in support of Mugabe. There were few
signs of that in Harare although those who stayed away from the polls in the
more upmarket parts of the capital tended to be the homeowners. Their maids
and gardeners, subjected to nightly forced political meetings by Zanu-PF,
were taking no chances.

The Zanu-PF militia was out early in Chitungwiza,
one of the Harare townships where the ruling party unleashed its violent
campaign of retribution to "reorient" people who voted for the opposition
last time. They moved from house to house at dawn, singing liberation war
songs and banging on doors to warn people to vote.

Near some polling
stations in the township, voters were directed to buildings where ruling
party activists told them to record the serial numbers of the ballot paper
they received at the voting booth and to return with it.

Zanu-PF set
up tents close to some polling stations in Harare where people were expected
to show their identity cards so their names could be ticked off as having
voted.

But some people remained defiant. "I refuse to vote," said Blessed
Manyonga in Chitungwiza. "If they ask me I will say I lost my identity card.
I will not vote for my own oppression."

Others said they spoiled
their ballot papers. "I put a question mark next to Robert Mugabe," said a
man who gave his name only as Tendai. "It's a joke."

In Harare, one man
said he had not voted at all and instead smeared his finger with ink from a
ballpoint pen. But in many rural areas people were being driven en masse to
the polls and left in no doubt about what they were expected to
do.

Opposition officials said some voters reported having their identity
numbers written on the back of their ballot papers. In other places they
were forced to show how they had marked the ballot before they dropped it in
the voting box.

Still others were handed pre-marked ballots by ruling
party activists and told to hand back the blank ones they received inside
the polling booths to prove they had not voted for the
opposition.

Pishai Muchauraya, an opposition MP in Manicaland, said he
witnessed a low turnout in Mutare, the province's main city, but had
received reports of voters being forced to the polls and intimidated in
large numbers in rural areas where the vote swung against Mugabe in
March.

"Here in the urban areas people have just stayed at home. They are
defiant. In rural areas like Buhera and Makoni people are being forced to go
and vote. They say we will check your finger and if you don't vote ..." he
said. "They are also expected to say they cannot read and write, and to ask
for assistance to vote. People were forced to sleep at Zanu-PF bases and
then taken to vote. All that kind of coercion."

Opposition activists
in Mashonaland said whole villages had been warned that if there was
anything short of a substantial victory for Mugabe when the count was made
at local polling stations, then those who voted there would be collectively
punished.

But there were those who voted for Mugabe more than willingly.
"Why should we vote against our president when he liberated this country?"
said Agnes Tapera in Chitungwiza. "What is Tsvangirai? Did he fight in the
liberation war? Why is he so friendly with those white farmers? Why does
Britain support him? Tsvangirai is not a president. He runs away every time
it gets difficult. Right now he is hiding in that [Dutch] embassy. Mugabe
stays and fights. He fought Ian Smith and the British and he is fighting
Tsvangirai and he will win."

It was all in stark contrast to the
first round of presidential elections three months ago when Mugabe's
opponents briefly believed they might finally remove him from power simply
by marking a ballot paper. There was no such illusion
yesterday.

Mugabe emerged from voting in Highfield township in Harare
proclaiming himself "very optimistic" and "upbeat" that yesterday's ballot
would reverse his first round defeat. That was one thing Zimbabwe's
president for the past 28 years and the opposition agreed on - that there's
little doubt Mugabe will be declared the winner.

His Zanu-PF party
says it is a popular response to its campaign for "100% empowerment and
independence" from British imperialism.

The ruling party chairman, John
Nkomo, made a televised appeal to Zimbabweans to support Mugabe by
portraying support for the opposition as akin to recolonisation and
Tsvangirai as a Downing street puppet.

"Our statehood and our nationhood
are under severe threat. The question before each and every one of us is
whether, advertently or inadvertently, we will go down in the annals of
history as defenders of our motherland or as traitors who unabashedly
volunteered for servitude," he said. "The ferocity of the anti-Zimbabwe
campaign underscores what is at stake - our independence and future as a
nation. Evidently this onslaught is being directed from London and
Washington."

Even the Queen - or what the Herald called the High
Priestess of England - got dragged in for stripping Mugabe of his honorary
knighthood this week.

The paper said it was a welcome development ahead
of the election which confirmed the need to support "total
independence".

"No one has ever referred to our president as 'Sir' Robert
Mugabe. He is known as 'Comrade' Robert Mugabe and that says it all," said
the Herald.

Tsvangirai, who pulled out of the race because of the
systematic violence that has virtually wiped out his party's structures on
the ground but who remained on the ballot paper, urged his supporters to
stay away from the polls. But he said they should vote for Mugabe if that
was necessary to save their skins.

"What is happening is not an
election," he said yesterday. "It is an exercise in mass intimidation with
people all over the country being forced to vote. Fortunately, Zimbabweans
are attempting to stay away from the polls as they can tell the difference
between democracy and a dictatorship desperate for the illusion of
legitimacy."

But Tsvangirai said the vote would strip Mugabe of the last
vestiges of legitimacy as president whatever the outcome of the
election."Zimbabweans know that there is nothing legitimate about this
election and they know that there will be nothing legitimate about the
result. This is a view shared by many African and world leaders," he
said.

"The end of this terrible, violent dictatorship is now assured, the
people's victory may have been delayed by this sham election but it will
never be denied."

Many of the voters are not so confident."It was our
mistake to think we could get rid of Mugabe," said Wilson. "He is right when
he says only God can get rid of him. I want to ask God if he is on our
side."

All the intimidation may in the end prove academic because
ultimately what matters is the numbers on the final returns, and Zimbabwe's
state-controlled election commission will decide what they are beyond the
reach of prying eyes.

The violence not only scared the voters but
drove opposition and independent local election observers away from
monitoring the polls. MDC polling agents have been systematically beaten up,
thrown into jail, abducted and murdered.

The thousands of independent
local observers who oversaw the election three months ago have also been
terrorised into staying away, leaving the voting and the count largely
unscrutinised by outside witnesses.

Only a few hundred observers from
African organisations are monitoring the poll and they were hard-pressed to
cover more than 9,000 polling stations. Many of those observers have seen
enough to decide that the election was anything but free and fair, and seem
ready to say so.

Mugabe plans to attend an African Union summit in Egypt
next week as Zimbabwe's newly re-elected president, and he will defy any of
the continent's leaders to question his legitimacy.

"When I go to the
AU meeting next week, I am going to challenge some leaders to point out when
we have had worse elections," Mugabe told a final election rally on
Thursday. "I would like some African leaders who are making these statements
to point at me and we would see if those fingers would be cleaner than
mine."

That is largely irrelevant to the voters, who just wanted to get
through the day in one piece. But the end of balloting did not necessarily
bring relief. In some parts of Harare, the voters were told to report back
to the polling station after dark and to wait for the count to be completed.
They were warned that if the numbers were not right, there would be a price
to pay.

"I hope everybody did what I did and voted for Mugabe," said
Wilson. "Otherwise we're all in trouble."

Fear in Zimbabwe as voters awake to Operation Red
Finger

Harangued by the militia and watched by police, Zimbabweans headed to
the polls for the election run-off

Catherine Philp in
HarareRobert Mugabe was last night preparing to brazen it out with his
fellow African leaders after Zimbabwe voted with no option but to return him
as president.

After a day of voting in which the intimidation saw all
but a brave handful cast their vote for the 84-year-old, Mr Mugabe is
expected to bask in the light of the election result and take his country's
seat at the African Union summit in Egypt.

As the country voted, in
the cities, the streets were all but deserted. In the country, the queues
stretched for yards. But everywhere the mood was the same: fear, dread and
resignation.

The dawn that illuminated President Mugabe's pantomime
election day could not have been more different to that of three months ago,
when three challengers shared the ballot with him and voters got up before
first light, quivering with excitement to be part of the change they
scented.

An e-mail being passed around from the opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai urged supporters not to boycott the polls if doing so would put
their lives at risk."Whatever might happen, the results . . . will not
be recognised by the world," Mr Tsvangirai vowed. "God knows what is in your
hearts. Don't risk your lives." The result, he added, would "reflect only
the fear of the people of Zimbabwe" and he urged the international community
to reject the result.

Even by the standard of the past two terrifying
weeks, the atmosphere of fear yesterday was extraordinary. In the capital,
police patrolled every block while white pickup trucks of Zanu (PF) youth
militia hurtled around the streets, their passengers singing revolutionary
songs and heckling the few passers-by, demanding to know why they were not
voting.

At farms south of the capital, huge queues outside polling
stations were watched over by party officials. There and in the slum areas
of Mbare and Epworth, groups of voters arrived at the stations in groups
accompanied by a local Zanu (PF) marshal, who ticked their names off lists
and summoned them one by one to vote.

Along highways in Masvingo and
Mashonaland scores of roadblocks had sprung up overnight, mostly manned by
Zanu (PF) militants. Motorists were stopped and ordered to the polls if they
could not show the telltale little finger dyed pink with indelible ink,
proving they had voted.

Frances, a staunch MDC supporter, said that she
had gone to vote purely to get her finger marked because of "Operation Red
Finger", a reprisal campaign that the regime has promised to launch against
anyone unable to prove that they voted.

"If we don't vote, they don't
see the finger. We will be in trouble," she said. "They called it Operation
Red Finger - if you didn't vote, why? It means you are an opposition
supporter."

At a rally, the militia gave warning that failing to vote
would be fatal. "They are going to cut off our heads," Frances said. "We
believe them because many people in Mbare were butchered."

In the
event Frances opted to spoil her ballot. It was an act of almost foolhardy
bravery: she had to dodge the party officials outside recording the serial
numbers of everyone's ballot paper in order to check them after the vote.
Inside the station, election officials directed vendors from the sprawling
Mbare market to their own ballot box, warning them that if a single MDC vote
was found there they would all be driven out of the market. Similar patterns
of coercion and intimidation were reported across the country, suggesting a
highly orchestrated and centralised campaign. Voters in some areas were told
to pretend they could not write and to ask for help from police or party
officials; in others they were told to feign arm
injuries.

International condemnation was swift. Foreign ministers of
the G8 industrialised nations meeting in Kyoto denounced the systematic
violence, obstruction and intimidation in Zimbabwe and demanded that the
Government work with the opposition. "We will not accept the legitimacy of
any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people," the
ministers said in a statement.

In an interview with The Times, David
Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, called the country's economic collapse and
political brutality "a scar on the whole continent".

He said: "I
think that there's now a real responsibility on the African Union, as well
as SADC [Southern African Development Community]. There are leaders across
the AU speaking out, and I think that's very significant. The AU is going to
have to be part of the solution. It's very clear to the UK that there's no
legitimacy for the Government of Robert Mugabe." Both the US and the EU
dismissed the election as a sham. In an interview with Channel 4 last night,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu implored the Zimbabwean leader to quit. "For
goodness sake, Mr Mugabe, you can end this tragedy - step down," he said. He
added that Africa's leaders "should declare Mr Mugabe illegitimate if he
claims that he is the newly elected president of Zimbabwe".

But in a sign
that Mr Mugabe intends to challenge the authority and character of the AU,
the Zimbabwean President said that he would be at the group's summit in
Egypt and would point out that other African countries "have done worse
things". He added that he wanted them "to point at me, and we would see if
those fingers would be cleaner than mine".

Mr Tsvangirai left his refuge
in the Dutch Embassy again yesterday to let fly at President Mbeki of South
Africa, saying that he could no longer see "any role" for him as mediator in
the crisis and accusing him of being ready to recognise yesterday's
election. Archbishop Tutu was also critical, saying that Mr Mbeki's "softly
softly" approach had not worked.

Few outsiders have been allowed in to
observe the vote. Among those present were monitors from the Pan-African
Parliament and the SADC. Their early assessments were grim. "The people are
reluctant to talk," Khalid A. Dahab, the Pan-African Parliament spokesman
said. "Some of them are saying, 'We were told to come here'. It's just not
normal. There's a lot of tension."

A SADC observer said that the
elections "were worse than those we witnessed in Angola in 1992 after
decades of war and are not credible". Domestic monitoring groups called off
their plans to observe the vote because of the extreme violence their
volunteers have been subjected to during the last months of
terror.

State newspapers had predicted the massive turnout that Mr Mugabe
had demanded but government radio was forced to concede that voters were
only "trickling in", attributing the slow start to the chilly winter
weather.

As the polls drew to a close, fears were rising of a rapid
backlash against those who refused to turn out. In contrast with the
unexplained weeks-long delay that followed March's election, this result is
expected today and Mr Mugabe could be sworn in as early as Sunday, by which
time "Operation Red Finger" could be well under way.

People have been
warned that the intimidation will not end with the vote. The all-day and
all-night pungwes, or indoctrination sessions, that millions have been
forced to attend are to continue in case people "forget" who they should
support.

Some details, such as timing and description of
movements, in the following are altered for the safety of NEWSWEEK's reporter.

What if they held an election and no one came?
Friday's runoff election in Zimbabwe was pretty much like that. Morgan
Tsvangirai, the opposition candidate and front-runner, sat out the election
against President Robert Mugabe,
and so did most people, at least in Harare and environs. Downtown Harare
was a virtual ghost town, and at polling places around the city, the voting
queues were twos and threes long, sometimes as many as 10s; rumor had it that at
a few polling places in strongholds of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, there were
actually hundreds, but I didn't see that in a long day of cruising the
streets.

I did take a brief break, to run out to the airport
and change cars; my little yellow thing had probably been seen lurking around
too many places by now. And I took care to change hotels, even though the very
helpful front desk fellow had registered me under one of his relatives' names
rather than my own. He didn't even care about the tip.

There actually wasn't that much to see. Most stores
and businesses had closed up shop for the day, not because it was a holiday, but
out of fear of violence. So people were certainly able to vote. The Zimbabwean
government mouthpiece, The Herald, had confidently predicted a massive turnout.
ZANU-PF thugs had gone door to door rounding up people for re-education
sessions, teaching them how they'll be punished if they don't turn out and vote
for Mugabe. Many people were warned that they'd be attacked if ZANU-PF Green
Bombers, their youth militia, found that their fingers hadn't been dipped in ink
(normally this is done to prevent people from voting more than once). In this
case, there was an effort to use it to scare people into voting.

It clearly didn't work in most instances. The scenes
Friday were in marked contrast to the March 29 presidential poll, which
Tsvangirai won 48-43 percent against Mugabe (even after the government finished
tampering with the results). Reasonably free and fair until the time of the
vote-counting, that election took place in a carnival atmosphere. Queues were
measured in hundreds of meters and even kilometers rather than twos and threes,
and people waited in them happily and patiently. Fast forward to Friday;
whenever there was a short queue, it was a sad and sorry-looking one, people
with downcast eyes and grim expressions, and almost entirely silent as they
waited their turn of shame. Even for ZANU-PF, after all, what was the
point?

An example was Mrs. Mazhindu (I didn't get her first
name), a very fearful-looking lady in her 70s, who was waiting to cast her vote
in the town of Chitungwiza, about 25 miles south of Harare, at the Zengazi 3
polling place—like most of them, a military style tent flanked with policemen on
the shoulder of a main road. She was voting, she said, for two reasons: "I don't
want to revisit the experience of the wars of the 1970s," she said, referring to
Mugabe's campaign pledge that his followers would wage war on the victors if he
lost. And "we were given strict instructions to vote for the president and no
one else." She had good reason to be nervous, because the local president of the
Zimbabwe Election Commission at that polling place was recognized by my
translator as an officer of the Central Intelligence Organization, Mugabe's
internal security apparatus, the secret police.

That particular polling place was one of the busier
ones: There were three voters inside and three outside when I got there about 1
p.m., but in the early morning, some hundreds had been lined up, according to
ZANU-PF folks there. Chitungwiza is one of the relative ZANU-PF strongholds and
a place where Mugabe chose to make his last big election-eve speech, in which he
railed against all the African leaders lining up to take potshots at him for the
abominable snow job June 27 was shaping up to be. They managed to scare up a
crowd numbering thousands for that speech; not surprising, then, that they could
get a few of them to vote. In fact, one of them apparently voted four times. I
met him in a coffee shop, and he had four purple fingers, trying no doubt to
make up for the low turnout single-handedly, as it were.

Other places were even more lightly attended. At the
Queen Elizabeth School in Harare, the polling place president said, with no
apparent regret, "People just aren't coming, we've had only 20 or 30 so far."
And this was at 11 a.m. in a country where traditionally most people vote early.
Voter Charles Mutema, an employee at the ministry of justice, didn't look happy
about doing his civic duty as he dipped his finger in the telltale purple ink.
"We need a president," he said, "so we have no choice."

John Makumbe, a professor of political science at the
University of Zimbabwe, said he has no doubt that Mugabe's marauders will be out
by Saturday, looking for people who don't have purple fingers, but even so he
had no intention of supporting a sham election by voting in it. "I went along to
one of the polling places just for a chuckle," he said. "I saw an old man I knew
and said, 'Why are you voting?' He said he didn't want to get attacked, but he
fully intended to spoil his ballot."

It wasn't an entirely grim
day. My translator, who prefers to go by the pseudonym of Myamuziwra, became
adept at the drive-by interview, through the open passenger-side window, which
we thought might minimize our chances of running afoul of the authorities for
committing criminal journalism. "Hey, did you vote?" he called to a man lounging
on a corner. "No, did you?" Myamuziwra showed him his clean fingers. "Well,"
said the man, "I can see who you voted
for."

'If you vote MDC, they will destroy your
house'

The TimesJune 28, 2008

Jan Raath in HarareNyasha was waiting last night to have his
fingers checked. At stake was his house, his health and possibly even his
life.

Nyasha, like every other voter, had had to dip his little finger
into a sponge soaked with pink indelible fluid. "Operation Red Finger" is a
vital pillar in President Mugabe's strategy to maximise turnout, to give
yesterday's one-man presidential race a semblance of
respectability.

So everybody went to vote, even in Epworth, a sprawling
jumble of mud and brick huts that has witnessed some of the worst political
violence in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. When Nyasha and his lodger Brian got
to the polling station in Epworth, at 7am, there was already a very long
queue.

There were as many people waiting to cast their ballot yesterday
at the school where the vote was held as in the relatively free first round
in March, but Nyasha sensed that the atmosphere was much more subdued. A
crowd of youths lurked at the gate of the school, without their Mugabe
T-shirts, so as not to make the purpose of their presence too obvious. Their
job was to make sure that everybody voted the right way.

"When I got
to the gate, a war veteran gave me a pen and a piece of paper. He told me I
had to write the serial number of the ballot paper when I am in the polling
booth," Nyasha said."When you come out, you go to another war veteran
waiting at the gate and he writes down your serial number, your name, your
address and your ID number in an exercise book. They say that later they can
find your ballot paper and check who you voted for. If you voted for the
MDC, they will destroy your house and you have to leave Epworth.

"I
have a red finger," he said. "I wanted to vote for Tsvangirai, but I voted
for Mugabe, because of fear. Everyone is afraid their houses will be
destroyed, so they are voting for Mugabe."

In the last two weeks,
nearly 200 homes of suspected MDC supporters have been smashed by Zanu (PF)
gangs, up to 15 of them in Nyasha's ward.

"Now we are waiting for the end
of the day," Nyasha said on his way home. "They said they will come to
everyone's houses after voting is finished and see that everybody voted.
They will look at our fingers for the red ink. If you don't have red ink
they will beat you and then destroy your house," he said. In Epworth, the
Zanu (PF) election campaign for the run-off featured systematic floggings,
preceded by "confessions" forced out of people who voted for the MDC in the
first round in March.

Amazingly, there are still some people who are
prepared to defy the regime. Mary, a maid in her late 50s, was going to make
sure she got her red finger, but she could not bear to tick the name of the
sole remaining candidate. "I am going to draw a big X all over the voting
paper, to spoil my vote," she said. "I don't want Mugabe."

Two lines of people at dawn yesterday told the story of an
unwanted election in Zimbabwe. The first queue stretched in an L-shape, more
than 200 strong, waiting for bread. In the adjacent lot four policemen
guarded a polling station where three people waited to vote.

The
crowds that gathered from dawn til dusk three months ago in the hope of
voting freely stayed away yesterday from a "one-man election" that has been
almost universally condemned as a charade.

The huge support that
Robert Mugabe is expected to boast of today was invisible on the empty
streets of the capital, Harare, where police and militia were out in force
from first light.

The systematic effort to beat out the vote that
followed the 84-year-old president's first-round defeat, and left more than
100 dead and thousands tortured, left him as the only candidate in the race
but appears to have done nothing to rebuild his popular support.

Of
the dozen polling stations across the capital visited by The Independent
during the morning there were no more than a handful of voters. In somem
cases there were none at all.

In the middle-class suburb of
Strathaven the cynical government ploy of releasing flour stocks for the
first time this week backfired as people flocked to the bread line, not the
polling station.

"They should put the poll station next to the bread if
they wanted to get some votes," joked one man waiting to buy a
loaf.

The euphoria that marked the most important election since
independence gave way yesterday to an exhausting tension. Police road blocks
were ubiquitous as were Mugabe posters demanding "one last push for total
control".

In Mbare, one of the poorest districts south of the city, the
morning's trickle of voters became a march after ruling party officials
press-ganged reluctant locals into the queues. Witnesses saw militia beating
people with sticks, while at one station people's names were read aloud from
a register as they entered the voting tent.

A local vendor who
refused to be identified said people had no choice.

"Many are standing
there in the line so that the Zanu people will see them."

He pointed out
three men wearing slings who he said were opposition activists. They had
been told to fake the arm injuries so that polling agents would be called on
to help them vote and "make sure they vote Mugabe".

Elsewhere, people
improvised by rubbing fingers with people who had just voted to get the ink
stain that could mean the difference between life and death in the
retributions some fear will follow.

In some areas terrified people
"registered" their vote at ruling party command centres showing their
fingers as proof. Already last night others who had no ink stain to show
were being rounded up in Harare.

Speaking from his refuge in the Dutch
Embassy opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the first round of
voting by a clear margin, said the vote "reflected only the fear of the
people".

"What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise
in mass intimidation."

The rural areas which have witnessed the worst
of a terror campaign where people have been routinely beaten, raped and
mutilated were effectively sealed off from the outside world. Reports told
of ballot stuffing, arson threats and voters being marched to polling
stations.

The thousands of independent monitors and opposition polling
agents who fanned out across the country for the 29 March poll were not
there to bear witness. The Mugabe regime has barred many foreign journalists
from reporting in the country and even local reporters were attacked for
questioning people in a city-centre breadline yesterday.

The result
is expected to be announced swiftly in contrast to the marathon delays last
time, showing a predetermined "realistic" turn-out of 1.6 million for
Mugabe, according to the MDC's election director, Ian Makoni.

"The
turn-out was very low, the public took heed of our call not to take part.
The figures they are going to release are meaningless.

"The election we
recognise happened in March and it made Morgan Tsvangirai the legitimate
president.

An official polling agent, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said there was no comparison between the first and second rounds. By
mid-afternoon at one of the busiest polling stations outside the capital he
had counted fewer than 100 people. "In the last round they were queuing
around the block," he said by telephone.

The first round defeat
appears to have taken the president and the military junta by surprise. In
the crisis that ensued Mr Mugabe's top generals and financiers, the Joint
Operations Command, decided to hit back with a ruthless and well organised
campaign to beat the opposition into submission and take the second round by
force.

That strategy was derailed by the MDC's decision to withdraw from
the run-off saying the country resembled a "war zone" and denouncing the
poll as a "sham". That stance has won strong Western backing and also drawn
unprecedented support from African leaders past and present.

The
international dissent has left the former liberation hero Mugabe with a
crisis of legitimacy that he will attempt to confront today as he flies to
Cairo to attend an African Union meeting.

Mr Makoni said that the
international community must now "act" against Mugabe: "They have got to
apply a lot of pressure. That's what happened at the end of Apartheid and
the same can happen here."

The regime will hope that the false calm in
Harare's empty polling stations will be enough to persuade regional SADC
observers to sanction yesterday's vote. But they need look no further than
the South African embassy for evidence of what has really happened. Hundreds
of refugees from the violence were huddled there yesterday in white tents.
Clothes were left to dry on the razor wire fence and infants were washed in
buckets, while adults walked around half naked to display the wounds they
inflicted on them.

Four road blocks surround the compound, trying to keep
this side of the election story out of sight.

A stain on democracy as voters are frogmarched to polling
stations

The Scotsman

Published Date: 28 June 2008By Gerri
PeevPolitical CorrespondentZIMBABWE'S main opposition leader has urged
the world to ignore the country's "sham" election in which President Robert
Mugabe was the only candidate.

The poll, marred by violence, was
dismissed by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), as "an exercise in mass intimidation, with people all over the
country being forced to vote".

World leaders also condemned the election,
as reports came that voters were marched to the ballot box by marshals
carrying books with people's names.

Some voters were given pre-marked
ballots and ordered to prove they had not voted for the opposition. Their
fingers were marked by indelible ink, contradicting the Mugabe claim it was
a free and fair election.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, joined a
chorus of international condemnation, insisting the poll was not legitimate.
He echoed the words of G8 foreign ministers at the close of a Tokyo
conference of the world's wealthiest lands, saying: "There is no legitimacy
for a government claiming election on the basis of today's
events."

In Washington, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state,
called the run-off a "sham". The US would raise possible sanctions with
other UN Security Council members, she said.

Despite desperate
attempts by the ruling Zanu-PF party to portray the contest as fair, the
result will be undermined by what was tipped to be a patchy
turn-out.

Abel Chikomo, of the independent Zimbabwe Media Monitoring
Project in Bulawayo, said: "There are more queues at bars than at polling
stations. People know the election is a farce."

Voters in rural areas
had reportedly learned their homes would be burnt down if they did not go to
the polling stations. Mr Tsvangirai, who had removed himself from the
contest, warned supporters not to risk their personal safety by voting for
anyone other than 84-year-old Mr Mugabe.

In an e-mail message from the
Dutch Embassy where he had sought refuge, Mr Tsvangarai said he expected
voters to be threatened, told to record their ballot numbers and filmed as
they voted. He advised them not to resist.

Later, at a press conference,
he said that he understood Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, planned
to recognise the outcome of the poll.

This is in contrast to his
pre-decessor, Nelson Mandela, who this week spoke of the failure of
leadership in Zimbabwe.

Mr Mugabe himself appeared jovial as he voted,
telling a reporter he was feeling "very fit, very optimistic, upbeat and
hungry". But outside the Harare polling station, two Zimbabwean freelance
journalists were detained by police as they waited to watch the president
vote.

Dozens of opposition supporters have been killed and thousands of
people injured in the run-up to the vote.

Yesterday, there were
reports of paramilitary police in riot gear deployed to a central park in
Harare. Militant supporters of Mr Mugabe also roamed the streets, singing
revolutionary songs, heckling people and demanding to know why they were not
voting.

A gunman in civilian clothes was also seen attacking a TV news
cameraman and the voter he was interviewing on a Harare street, then forcing
them into a police vehicle.

In contrast to the excitement and hope
for change that marked the first round of voting in March, this poll is
expected only to deepen the nation's pol-itical and economic crisis.

Widespread intimidation seen in Zimbabwe vote

By ANGUS SHAW - 25 minutes
ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Roaming bands of government supporters
heckled, harassed or threatened people into voting in a runoff election
Friday in which President Robert Mugabe was the only candidate, ensuring he
will remain in power despite international condemnation of the balloting as
a sham.

Residents said they were forced to vote by threats of
violence or arson from the Mugabe supporters, who searched for anyone
without an ink-stained finger - the telltale sign that they had cast a
ballot.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the runoff
after an onslaught of state-sponsored violence against his Democratic
Movement for Change, said the results would "reflect only the fear of the
people."

"What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise
in mass intimidation," he said at a news conference.

Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice called the vote a "sham," and said the United States
would use its position as president of the U.N. Security Council until July
1 to drive international condemnation of Mugabe's regime.

"Those
operating in Zimbabwe should know that there are those ... who believe that
the Security Council should consider sanctions," she said at a meeting in
Japan. "We intend to bring up the issue of Zimbabwe in the council. We will
see what the council decides to do."

The presidents of Burundi, Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, in a rare comment about the affairs of another
African country, said Zimbabwe's one-candidate runoff, "cannot be a
solution," to the country's political crisis. The presidents, at a regular
summit of the East African Community held in Kigali, Rwanda, urged Mugabe's
and Tsvangirai's parties "to come together and work out an amicable solution
through dialogue in the interest of all Zimbabweans."

Jacob Zuma, the
head of South Africa's African National Congress, said the situation in
Zimbabwe was "extremely difficult and distressing."

"We reiterate that
the situation is now out of control," he said in Johannesburg, South Africa,
in one of the few times a senior South African politician has openly
criticized Mugabe. "Nothing short of a negotiated political arrangement will
get Zimbabwe out of the conflict it has been plunged into."

European
Union spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said the election result will be "hollow
and meaningless."

Reporters and independent observers in Harare saw low
turnout. As polls closed at 7 p.m., officials at one Harare station said
they hadn't seen a voter for several hours.

Paramilitary police in
riot gear deployed in a central Harare park, then began patrolling the city.
Marshals led some voters to polls, and militant Mugabe supporters roamed the
streets, singing revolutionary songs, heckling people and asking why they
were not voting.

Human rights activist Dusani Ncube estimated that fewer
than 2,000 people voted in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. But he
said people in surrounding rural areas were told that if they did not vote
their homes would be burned down.

Human rights groups have said tens
of thousands of rural Zimbabweans had been displaced by campaign violence
and would not be able to vote.

"I've got no option but to go and vote so
that I can be safe," said a young woman selling tomatoes in Harare.

A
gunman in civilian clothes was seen attacking a TV news cameraman and the
voter he was interviewing on a Harare street, then forcing them into a
police vehicle.

In addition, Reporters Without Borders expressed
concern about a freelance reporter and cameraman who were arrested Friday
while covering Mugabe at a polling station. The group said Frank Chikowore -
who on a blog entry calls himself a Zimbabwean independent journalist -
along with a camerman who wasn't fully identified were taken to a police
station.

Hundreds of journalists, mainly from Western media
organizations, have been banned from covering Zimbabwe's
elections.

Tsvangirai, whose name remained on the ballot because his
withdrawal on Sunday came too late, said he still wanted negotiations about
a transitional authority for Zimbabwe but was not sure whether he could talk
with Mugabe, 84.

The two leaders have been under pressure to sit down
and find a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, who has been
president since independence in 1980, offered an olive branch to the
opposition Thursday, saying he was "open to discussion" with them.

He
appeared jovial as he voted, telling a reporter in Harare he was feeling
"very fit, very optimistic, upbeat and hungry."

Shortly after voting,
Mugabe told Southern African Development Community observers he was
confident he would be victorious, a spokesman for the key regional bloc said
on Angolan state radio.

Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African
Parliament observer mission, told the BBC the mood in Harare was somber and
that the turnout was low.

He said while walking in one high density
suburb, observers mistook a long line of people for voters waiting at a
polling station, only to find that the people were queuing for
bread.

"It was quite a very long queue," he said.

Khumalo said he
had not seen signs of intimidation and that the organization would make an
announcement on the election on Sunday.

However, he said he had not seen
"the ingredients that make this election free and fair."

Tsvangirai
was first in a field of four in the March vote, an embarrassment to Mugabe.
The official tally said he did not gain the votes necessary to avoid a
runoff against Mugabe. Tsvangirai's party and its allies also won control of
parliament in March, dislodging Mugabe's party for the first time since
independence in 1980.

Mugabe was once hailed as a post-independence
leader committed to development and reconciliation, but in recent years has
been denounced as a dictator intent only on holding onto power through
intimidation and election fraud.

Zimbabwe was the topic of long,
closed-door discussions Friday in Egypt among foreign ministers gathered
ahead of an African Union summit that begins Monday - and that Mugabe has
said he will attend.

Some AU members say the runoff shouldn't have been
held, while others, such as regional powerhouse South Africa, refuse to
publicly criticize Mugabe even on that point.

"Our position is that
the parties in Zimbabwe should work together for the future of Zimbabwe,"
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told AP Television
News.

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

africasia

HARARE, June 28 (AFP)Zimbabwe vote turnout 'massive:'
official newspaperTurnout was "massive" in Zimbabwe's run-off presidential
election, in which incumbent Robert Mugabe ran unopposed, the official
newspaper The Herald reported Saturday.

"The presidential run-off
poll contested by President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai
of MDC-T closed peacefully yesterday evening with massive voter turnout
recorded in most parts of the country," the newspaper
reported.

Tsvangirai, 56, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), won the first round 13 weeks ago with 47.9 percent of votes to
Mugabe's 43.2 percent.

The MDC says Mugabe, 81, has since tilted the
election in his favour through a campaign of systematic violence and
intimidation, and Tsvangirai pulled out of the contest last
weekend.

The Herald did not provide any data on turnout, but provided
anecdotal evidence, mentioning in particular "hundreds of voters had by 5:00
am queued at various polling stations" in the south of the capital
Harare.

AFP journalists found few people lining up at polling stations in
the early morning in the capital, in sharp contrast to crowds which had
gathered to vote in the first round.

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission said the first results from the 210 constituencies were
not expected to be announced until Saturday.

Voting proceeded
smoothly according to police.

"We did not get any negative reports and
the situation was calm," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted as
saying by The Herald.

Amid widespread reports that the electorate was
being coerced into voting for Mugabe, Tsvangirai advised his followers not
to risk their lives with futile gestures of defiance.

"If possible,
we ask you not to vote today. But if you must vote for Mr Mugabe because of
threats to your life, then do so," he said Friday.

African leaders look to discredit Mugabe

Pressure is mounting on African leaders gathering
this weekend at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to repudiate President Robert Mugabe
publicly by not acknowledging him as a head of state.

It is unclear
whether Mugabe has been invited to the African Union summit scheduled for
Saturday and whether he will be lionised, as he usually is.

Meanwhile,
Kenya took the first step on Thursday, declaring that it will not recognise
Mugabe's "illegitimate presidency" and declaring the presidential run-off
scheduled for Friday "illegal, illegitimate and inconsequential".

In a
joint statement Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and civil society
organisations asked the Southern African Development Community to replace
President Thabo Mbeki as chief mediator between Zanu-PF and the MDC because
of Mbeki's "overt bias towards Mugabe and dismal failure to oversee a
credible mediation process".

Kenya will use the AU summit to lobby
other countries to follow suit by isolatingMugabe's government.

Most
African countries have publicly denounced the election violence in Zimbabwe
and declared that a free and fair election is impossible. They have urged
Mugabe to postpone elections and enter talks with the opposition parties.
Mugabe insists he will talk only after the election.

Western diplomats
say they are hoping that African heads of state at the AU summit will snub
Mugabe.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested sending a
peacekeeping force to Zimbabwe, but insists this process must be led by
Africans. The idea is that it would be sanctioned by the AU and either form
part of the African Standby Force or be constituted from scratch.

But
MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai said at a media conference in Harare on
Wednesday that he does not favour this option.

The international
community hopes that the statement by the United Nations, endorsed by the
South African government this week, will heighten the pressure. The
statement condemns the violence in Zimbabwe and asks for the poll to be
postponed.

The MDC appealed to the AU to decide on a mediation team at
its Egypt meeting, which could include President Thabo Mbeki but would have
to be a team effort.

"In our view Mbeki as an individual has failed,
but we will accommodate him if [the team] includes other African leaders or
former heads of state," MDC spokesperson George Sibotshiwe told the Mail
& Guardian.

Sibotshiwe will represent the MDC at the Sharm El Sheikh
meeting.

The MDC wants the postponement of elections and a transitional
arrangement whereby Mugabe will remain the caretaker president while
negotiations take place. It foresees that the transitional process could
take as long as two years.

But the MDC has set the release of
political prisoners as a non-negotiable condition for talks. MDC secretary
general Tendai Biti is in jail facing treason charges, while Tsvangirai has
taken refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare.

He tried to go to the
Botswana high commission on Sunday evening to escape an attack by Zanu-PF
militia but because of roadblocks he could not get there and opted to go to
the Dutch embassy.

Tsvangirai cannot leave the country because the
Zimbabwean authorities have refused him a new passport.

Since the
March 29 election Mugabe has reinstated himself as president and has
represented Zimbabwe at a UN summit in Rome.

A SADC meeting in Swaziland
on Thursday called on the AU to "get involved" and do everything possible to
postpone the elections so that inter-party talks can take place.

The
European Union is also looking at ways of ratcheting up the pressure on the
Zimbabwean ruling elite. At a meeting in July it is expected to slap heavier
travel bans on more people in Mugabe's inner circle and institute forensic
procedures to track down their accounts in Europe and freeze
them.

England's Queen Elizabeth yesterday revoked Mugabe's honorary
knighthood "as a mark of revulsion" at the political intimidation and human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe, The Guardian reports.

The decision was
announced by the UK Foreign Office, which said it had been taken on advice
from Miliband.

UN fails to agree on calling Zimbabwe vote illegitimate

Yahoo News

23
minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday
failed to agree on declaring Zimbabwe's runoff election illegitimate in the
face of South African opposition but the United States said it was
considering sanctions against Harare.

After hours of contentious
council debate, US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, who chairs the
15-member body this month, said members "agreed that conditions for free and
fair elections did not exist and it was a matter of deep regret that the
election went ahead in these circumstances."

South African Ambassador
Dumisani Kumalo, whose country has been trying to mediate an end to the
election crisis in Zimbabwe, effectively derailed adoption of a
British-drafted statement what would have stated that the results of
Friday's runoff election "could have no credibility or
legitimacy."

Adoption of the text would have required unanimous
approval by all 15 members and Kumalo argued that the Security Council was
not in the business of certifying elections.

Speaking in his national
capacity, Khalilzad vowed to remain focused on the issue, adding: "We have
already started discussions with some colleagues on a resolution that would
impose sanctions, appropriately focused sanctions on the (Harare) regime
assuming conditions continue as they have."

In Zimbabwe, polls closed in
the run-off election Friday with President Robert Mugabe certain of victory
as the sole candidate in a contest that the opposition urged world leaders
to reject.

Counting began immediately after voting ended at 7:00 pm (1700
GMT), following a 12-hour process denounced as a sham by the United States,
the European Union and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, amid claims of
forced ballot casting.

Tsvangirai won the first round 13 weeks ago
with 47.9 percent of votes to Mugabe's 43.2 percent but decided to boycott
the second round after deadly attacks against his
supporters.

Khalilzad said council members did reaffirm a statement they
adopted Monday in which they condemned the violence and intimidation against
the opposition in Zimbabwe and urged that Friday's runoff vote not be
held.

He said they also expected a report from the United Nations on
regional and international efforts on the crisis, including an upcoming
meeting of the African Union in Egypt Monday.

He said the council
agreed to revisit the issue "in the coming days."

The simultaneous March
29 presidential and legislative elections saw Mugabe's ZANU-PF lose control
of parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980,
although the outcome is being challenged in the courts.

Mugabe said
at his final rally he wants to continue as president, a post he has held
uninterrupted since independence. While he would be willing to talk to the
opposition, negotiations would begin only after he had won a sixth
term.

But in a press conference on Friday, Tsvangirai urged the
international community not to recognize the
run-off.

With darkness falling over Zimbabwe last night, terrified men, women and
children fled into the bush as violence broke out.

Fearing a vicious crackdown after millions defied Robert Mugabe by refusing
to vote in yesterday’s rigged elections, they gathered what few possessions they
had and tried to escape in any way they could.

As world leaders refused to recognise Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s legitimate
president, thousands of families massed to cross into neighbouring Botswana,
Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.

Intimidated: Hundreds queue to vote under the eyes of
Zanu-PF officials. But many more defied the threats

Risking crocodile-infested rivers, some tried to flee by foot while thousands
begged to be let across the country’s border after arriving in cars and buses.

Others darted into the bush, preferring to live on roots and berries than
risk death at the hands of Mugabe’s dreaded secret police.

Many ordinary Zimbabweans, who have seen their life expectancy drop from 75
to 35 since Mugabe came to power 28 years ago, said they would rather go into
hiding than vote.

‘What’s the point in voting in elections for one person?’ said Oliver
Goodness, who survives by selling cigarettes by the roadside for one billion
dollars each.

Fear: A mother and child sheltering outside the South
African embassy last night

Last night, huge crowds gathered outside foreign embassies in the capital
Harare begging to be saved.

At the South African embassy, a man shouted through the fence when he saw a
westerner: ‘Please, can you take my family? We will die if we stay here.’

Yesterday’s vote was held despite the fact the opposition party, the Movement
for Democratic Change, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, won parliamentary elections
in March.

Mugabe came second to Mr Tsvangirai in the first round of the presidential
vote, which was held at the same time.

Branded: Voters hands were marked with red ink so Mugabe's
thugs could spot those seen without and take them to polling stations

But Mugabe insisted yesterday’s run-off still needed to be held because the
MDC had not gained ‘a big enough majority’.

And this time, he left nothing to chance. As millions went into hiding,
others were taken under military escort to polling stations and ordered to put a
cross alongside the name of His Excellency Commander Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

There was also a nationwide campaign of terror and intimidation to make sure
people voted ‘the right way’.

Under Operation Who Did You Vote For?, police roadblocks were set up
throughout Harare to check for ‘enemies of the state’.

The entire country has also been ordered to ensure a Mugabe victory – or face
the consequences.

But the dictator claimed to be taking nothing for granted last night. After
casting his vote in Harare, in an election in which he was the only candidate,
Mugabe smiled and said he was ‘optimistic’ rather than certain of success.

Last night, this charade of an election was condemned across the globe. EU
spokesman Krisztina Nagy said: ‘The election is a sham. Its result will be
meaningless.’

At a meeting in Japan, foreign ministers for the G8 nations said a free
election in Zimbabwe was now impossible and accused Mugabe’s regime of
‘systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation’.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: ‘There is no legitimacy for a
government claiming election on the basis of these events, because this was a
onesided election in every aspect.’

Nobody could doubt that. Hundreds of torture camps have been set-up, with
thousands being raped and mutilated for not carrying membership cards for
Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.

At dawn yesterday, in scenes replicated throughout the country, the victims
were temporarily freed and told they could go home to their families – as long
as they voted for 84-year-old Mugabe.

Sham vote: A Zimbabwean shows his ballott for the
presidential election. It still shows MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, even though
he has withdrawn

To ensure they did not cheat, their identity numbers were written on their
ballot papers so the 300,000-strong secret police could check who had got their
vote.

Voters’ hands were also marked with indelible red ink.

On the streets, Mugabe’s armed thugs roamed, on the lookout for anybody
without the ‘red finger’, rounding them up and herding them off to polling
stations.

With Mr Tsvangirai under the protection of the Dutch embassy after repeated
threats on his life, Mugabe remained defiant last night, as he launched a tirade
at Gordon Brown, calling him ‘an idiot’.

Defiance: A poster calling for the boycott of the vote is
fixed to a pole in second city Bulawayo

‘It’s treason to call for war in Zimbabwe,’ he told ‘ supporters’ who had
been rounded up from townships and bussed under escort to a rally outside the
capital. ‘We will never give up. Never, never, never.’

Having reported on four ‘ elections’ in Zimbabwe since 1997, with violence
and death intensifying each time, I fear for this country, once described as
Africa’s ‘Garden of Eden’.

The situation has never been more perilous. There will be a war, I was told
by all ages of these peace-loving people. Yet, with a highly-trained army and
Chinese fighter aircraft, ordinary Zimbabweans would not stand a chance.

With his people fleeing the onslaught, it seems that Mugabe – said to be
increasingly paranoid and suffering from chronic insomnia – will never give up
power while he is alive.

Meanwhile, most people in this deeply-religious country hope that, one day,
their suffering will be over.

A United
Nations envoy is continuing to hold talks with Southern African leaders
about the troubled political and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, where
the run-off round of presidential elections is being held today despite
international objections.

Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General
for Political Affairs, held talks yesterday in Luanda with Angola's
President José Edoardo dos Santos. Today he is expected to meet Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete in Dar-es-Salaam.

Mr. Menkerios is then
slated to travel to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the current African Union
(AU) summit.

The diplomatic efforts are taking place as the run-off round
of the presidential election is staged today in Zimbabwe, which has been
beset by deadly unrest and deteriorating humanitarian conditions since the
first round of elections was held on 29 March.

Violence and
intimidation directed towards the opposition forces led to the withdrawal of
Morgan Tsvangirai, the candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), from today's run-off, in which he was set to face President Robert
Mugabe.

Many MDC activists have reportedly been killed or injured in
recent weeks and human rights defenders and staff with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) have been harassed.

Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said this week that the run-off should have been postponed given the
current circumstances, as a free and fair poll could not be
held.

Describing the crisis as 'a perversion of democracy,' UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has also voiced deep concern and
called for the perpetrators of political violence to be brought to account
for their crimes.

Mr. Ban and Mr. Menkerios have said they will
continue to work with the AU and the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) to ensure a satisfactory and non-violent resolution to the current
crisis.

Zimbabwe: Enemies of the State

PBS.org

BY FRONTLINE/World Editors

A cameraman, Edward Chikomba, was killed after he shared video with the
outside world of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (shown here leaving
hospital) after Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten unconscious by Robert
Mugabe's police force.

Editor's Note: In the last of our three-part series, our anonymous
correspondent in Zimbabwe details what it is like to work as an independent
journalist in one of the world's most repressive regimes. "By exposing the
government's shortcomings journalists have become enemies of the state," says
this writer. "I work in fear every day." Read her dispatch about the crackdown
below.

Since the latest round of election-related violence, our reporter has gone
into hiding in the capital of Harare. From her safe house, she spoke with
iWitness correspondent Joe Rubin and described the frightening conditions in the
city over the last few days.

Practicing journalism in Zimbabwe has become a crime punishable by death.

Last year, my colleague Edward Chikomba learned this the hard way. I still
can't believe he's gone -- the jovial spirit, the burly tummy, the camera bag he
always wore slung backward over his shoulder. He worked for the country's only
TV station, the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

Whenever I met up with him, he would complain that his videos were always
edited by government officials and that his wages were pathetic. "I have to feed
my children," he often said. To make ends meet, he had begun to shoot extra
footage to sell to foreign networks abroad.

In March 2007, Edward finally got a scoop. He captured footage of opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was beaten in police custody for attempting to
lead a march protesting Mugabe's rule. The story made a big impact. After the
video was beamed over satellite TV channels around the world, Mugabe was
summoned by a group of African heads of state to explain the treatment of
Tsvangirai. Mugabe had always denied that the police were torturing opposition
members. Edward's footage angered and embarrassed the government.

Edward told me jokingly that he had the feeling
someone was following him. He also said he got a note at home telling him, "You
will pay for Tsvangirai."

Afterward, Edward told me jokingly that he had the feeling someone was
following him. But I knew him better. Behind his infectious laugh I sensed he
was hiding a cold fear. He also said he got a note at home telling him, "You
will pay for Tsvangirai." He brushed it aside.

A few days later, Edward was abducted from his Glen View home in the capital
of Harare by men in a white truck. He was eventually found dead by the roadside,
beaten and bruised. Edward paid the ultimate price for his love of the
profession. To this day, there has never been any investigation into who is
responsible for his murder.

Edward's death shook me to the core. I made a decision I had put off for far
too long. I moved my two-year-old son to another town to live with my aunt. I
can only hope that will protect his identity.

Working In Fear

I have wanted to be a journalist since I was 15 years old. I remember reading
accounts by intrepid Zimbabwean reporters who had exposed a group of corrupt
government ministers, using state funds to buy and resell cars for their own
profit. The investigation gripped the nation. I knew I had found my calling.

But now I work in fear every day. The job has become so dangerous that I am
grateful to see some of my fellow journalists still working each day. In
February, a handwritten death threat and a pack of bullets were delivered to an
independent newspaper office. The threat was reported to the police, but nothing
happened. The police claim they are "still investigating."

A government document leaked to the media
has been making the rounds. It targets 15 journalists who have been described as
"agents of the West" and "sell-outs" that need to be "eliminated."

Mugabe's government has cracked down especially hard on journalists over the
last five years. What was once a noble profession has been driven underground by
draconian laws and police harassment.

A government document leaked to the media has been making the rounds. It
targets 15 journalists who are considered a security threat to Mugabe. I have
little doubt about the authenticity of the document.

Mugabe seems paranoid about any criticism. The list describes the 15
journalists as "agents of the West" and "sell-outs" that need to be
"eliminated." Eight of those 15 have already left the country.

Sometimes it seems as if I am one of the last in a dying profession.
There are only two independent newspapers left in Zimbabwe -- The Zimbabwe
Independent and The Standard. Both are weekly papers. I think the
government has let these two survive in order to hoodwink the rest of the world
into thinking that there is some small measure of free speech here.

With inflation hovering at 1.7 million percent, most Zimbabwean currency
notes are worthless and litter the streets.

Mugabe is cunning. Only people in larger cities have access to these
newspapers, and the papers are expensive, far beyond the reach of most people
grappling with an inflation rate of 1.7 million percent.

Newsprint in Zimbabwe is supplied by a monopoly, Mutare Board & Paper
Mills, so that the newspapers have no control over cost. The government-owned
company decides how much newsprint to sell to which customers. In that way, the
government tightly regulates the number of papers the independent media can
print.

There are also wide areas where these papers can't be distributed at all. In
the Mugabe party strongholds of Northern Zimbabwe, gangs of youth militia burn
any copies they find. Government supporters say that independent papers poison
people's minds.

Zimbabwe's only daily newspaper is the state-owned Herald. It
publishes government propaganda, so it is distributed unhindered nationwide. A
colleague tells me that the Herald editor gives all finished pages to the
Information Minister for approval before going to print. Zimbabwe's four radio
stations are also state-controlled and report directly to the Information
minister. Applications to the government for new newspapers, radio stations or
TV licenses are simply ignored or thrown out.

A Game of Cat and Mouse

By exposing the government's shortcomings, journalists have become enemies of
the state. Most have been driven into exile out of fear for their lives. Twelve
of the 20 reporters I trained with at college have already left the country.

Every day, reporters must play a game of cat and mouse with the police in an
endeavor just to do their job.

Not long ago, an editor was jailed for two
days for an opinion piece he published by one of the leaders of the opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

Not long ago, an editor was arrested for an opinion piece he published by one
of the leaders of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. The
article suggested that Mugabe has run Zimbabwe into the ground since helping the
country achieve independence in 1980.

The editor was jailed for two days, and I attended his trial. He was charged
under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. This law makes it a crime
to publish or even utter aloud any statement that may cause hatred toward the
President. I almost laughed in court. What sort of a law is this? Thankfully,
the editor was released on bail.

I attend all court hearings of arrested journalists. Partly, I am studying
for my own defense in case I, too, am in the dock one day. The charges are often
flimsy. In April, freelance journalist Stanley Karombo was arrested and held for
three days just for taking notes during Mugabe's Independence Day speech.

Police initially charged Karombo with invading Mugabe's right to privacy.
That charge fell away comically in court when the judge pointed out that the
president was making his speech in public. Karombo was eventually acquitted.

All sorts of ridiculous charges are levied that do not really exist under the
law. Countless journalists have been arrested and fined for a vague charge the
state calls "abusing journalistic privilege."

Gift Phiri, a correspondent for the London-based weekly The Zimbabwean
hugs his wife outside the Harare magistrates court. Phiri was hospitalized and
treated for injuries resulting from the beatings he received during four days in
police custody.

Fewer and fewer lawyers are willing to represent journalists in court, and
the state has begun to target them as well. Prominent media and human rights
lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa and Harrison Nkomo have been locked up several
times and tortured by police for coming to the defense of journalists.

Banana and Orange Peels

Under Zimbabwe's media law, the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, all journalists and media outlets must register with the
government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC). Every January,
after rigorous screening, the MIC hands out white plastic accreditation cards to
a handful of journalists. Most are denied.

The MIC requires journalists to surrender personal details including home
address and phone number in order to get approval. Most journalists do not
bother to apply since giving out such personal information is just too
risky.

Even with the card, there is still no guarantee of protection from the police
or the Central Intelligence Organization. A correspondent for the London-based
weekly The Zimbabwean landed in the hospital after 4 days in police
custody. His crime was covering an opposition party rally, even though he had
official accreditation to do so.

The conditions in Zimbabwe's prisons are infamous. I spent a day in one
recently after being arrested at a march. The cell reeked from the stench of
overflowing toilets, and prisoners had no choice but to relieve themselves on
the floor. The cell was crammed with four times as many people as it could hold.
No one could lie down so we had to take turns sleeping. There was very little
food available and some prisoners have starved to death.

Prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has spent years defending
Zimbabwean journalists, many of whom have been arrested for their work.

The former news editor of the Daily News, Luke Tamborinyoka, who has
been arrested several times for reporting, remembers the conditions there.
"During one of my several arrests, I sneaked in a banana and an orange," he
later told The Standard. "There was a stampede for the banana and orange
peels by inmates. Such is the level of hunger in prison."

The Last Election

Covering the election in April was a mammoth task for journalists, especially
foreign reporters. Mugabe's government drew up a list of who would be allowed to
report and broadcast from inside Zimbabwe. Media that it deemed "hostile" were
banned from reporting. This list included CNN, BBC, MSNBC and the Associated
Press. Even African outlets considered friendly to the state were denied access.

A number of foreign journalists entered Zimbabwe undercover as "tourists."
But many of them did not realize that you can't even trust other journalists
here. A number of foreign correspondents were sold out by state informers posing
as reporters and were arrested or deported as a result. But they are the lucky
ones. Their embassies and governments come to their aid when they are arrested.
We local journalists are here on our own without a safety net.

Even I never know whom to trust. Recently, a colleague with whom I'd worked
for a number of years was dismissed after it was discovered he was providing
intelligence to Mugabe. It's not even safe to share notes in a newsroom.

But I can't let this stop me. Not many things satisfy me more than finding
the truth. If atrocities are occurring here, someone has to expose them.

Related Stories

Zimbabwe: Shopping for SurvivalRead the author's first report
from Zimbabwe as part of our new iWitness series. Traveling hundreds of miles to
find food and basic supplies, our correspondent describes how impossible daily
survival has become for millions of Zimbabweans.

South Africa: "Go Away and Fight Mugabe"Also in iWitness,
FRONTLINE/World talks to a young American filmmaker over webcam who was
filming a documentary in a Johannesburg township recently when xenophobic riots
broke out. The violence was mainly directed against refugees flooding in from
neighboring Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: Shadows and LiesWatch our broadcast story from
2007, where FRONTLINE/World goes undercover in Zimbabwe to find a
population struggling with hunger and poverty, and living in fear.

BY FRONTLINE/World Editors

A cameraman, Edward Chikomba, was killed after he shared video with the
outside world of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (shown here leaving
hospital) after Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten unconscious by Robert
Mugabe's police force.

Editor's Note: In the last of our three-part series, our anonymous
correspondent in Zimbabwe details what it is like to work as an independent
journalist in one of the world's most repressive regimes. "By exposing the
government's shortcomings journalists have become enemies of the state," says
this writer. "I work in fear every day." Read her dispatch about the crackdown
below.

Since the latest round of election-related violence, our reporter has gone
into hiding in the capital of Harare. From her safe house, she spoke with
iWitness correspondent Joe Rubin and described the frightening conditions in the
city over the last few days.

Practicing journalism in Zimbabwe has become a crime punishable by death.

Last year, my colleague Edward Chikomba learned this the hard way. I still
can't believe he's gone -- the jovial spirit, the burly tummy, the camera bag he
always wore slung backward over his shoulder. He worked for the country's only
TV station, the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

Whenever I met up with him, he would complain that his videos were always
edited by government officials and that his wages were pathetic. "I have to feed
my children," he often said. To make ends meet, he had begun to shoot extra
footage to sell to foreign networks abroad.

In March 2007, Edward finally got a scoop. He captured footage of opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was beaten in police custody for attempting to
lead a march protesting Mugabe's rule. The story made a big impact. After the
video was beamed over satellite TV channels around the world, Mugabe was
summoned by a group of African heads of state to explain the treatment of
Tsvangirai. Mugabe had always denied that the police were torturing opposition
members. Edward's footage angered and embarrassed the government.

Edward told me jokingly that he had the feeling
someone was following him. He also said he got a note at home telling him, "You
will pay for Tsvangirai."

Afterward, Edward told me jokingly that he had the feeling someone was
following him. But I knew him better. Behind his infectious laugh I sensed he
was hiding a cold fear. He also said he got a note at home telling him, "You
will pay for Tsvangirai." He brushed it aside.

A few days later, Edward was abducted from his Glen View home in the capital
of Harare by men in a white truck. He was eventually found dead by the roadside,
beaten and bruised. Edward paid the ultimate price for his love of the
profession. To this day, there has never been any investigation into who is
responsible for his murder.

Edward's death shook me to the core. I made a decision I had put off for far
too long. I moved my two-year-old son to another town to live with my aunt. I
can only hope that will protect his identity.

Working In Fear

I have wanted to be a journalist since I was 15 years old. I remember reading
accounts by intrepid Zimbabwean reporters who had exposed a group of corrupt
government ministers, using state funds to buy and resell cars for their own
profit. The investigation gripped the nation. I knew I had found my calling.

But now I work in fear every day. The job has become so dangerous that I am
grateful to see some of my fellow journalists still working each day. In
February, a handwritten death threat and a pack of bullets were delivered to an
independent newspaper office. The threat was reported to the police, but nothing
happened. The police claim they are "still investigating."

A government document leaked to the media
has been making the rounds. It targets 15 journalists who have been described as
"agents of the West" and "sell-outs" that need to be "eliminated."

Mugabe's government has cracked down especially hard on journalists over the
last five years. What was once a noble profession has been driven underground by
draconian laws and police harassment.

A government document leaked to the media has been making the rounds. It
targets 15 journalists who are considered a security threat to Mugabe. I have
little doubt about the authenticity of the document.

Mugabe seems paranoid about any criticism. The list describes the 15
journalists as "agents of the West" and "sell-outs" that need to be
"eliminated." Eight of those 15 have already left the country.

Sometimes it seems as if I am one of the last in a dying profession.
There are only two independent newspapers left in Zimbabwe -- The Zimbabwe
Independent and The Standard. Both are weekly papers. I think the
government has let these two survive in order to hoodwink the rest of the world
into thinking that there is some small measure of free speech here.

With inflation hovering at 1.7 million percent, most Zimbabwean currency
notes are worthless and litter the streets.

Mugabe is cunning. Only people in larger cities have access to these
newspapers, and the papers are expensive, far beyond the reach of most people
grappling with an inflation rate of 1.7 million percent.

Newsprint in Zimbabwe is supplied by a monopoly, Mutare Board & Paper
Mills, so that the newspapers have no control over cost. The government-owned
company decides how much newsprint to sell to which customers. In that way, the
government tightly regulates the number of papers the independent media can
print.

There are also wide areas where these papers can't be distributed at all. In
the Mugabe party strongholds of Northern Zimbabwe, gangs of youth militia burn
any copies they find. Government supporters say that independent papers poison
people's minds.

Zimbabwe's only daily newspaper is the state-owned Herald. It
publishes government propaganda, so it is distributed unhindered nationwide. A
colleague tells me that the Herald editor gives all finished pages to the
Information Minister for approval before going to print. Zimbabwe's four radio
stations are also state-controlled and report directly to the Information
minister. Applications to the government for new newspapers, radio stations or
TV licenses are simply ignored or thrown out.

A Game of Cat and Mouse

By exposing the government's shortcomings, journalists have become enemies of
the state. Most have been driven into exile out of fear for their lives. Twelve
of the 20 reporters I trained with at college have already left the country.

Every day, reporters must play a game of cat and mouse with the police in an
endeavor just to do their job.

Not long ago, an editor was jailed for two
days for an opinion piece he published by one of the leaders of the opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

Not long ago, an editor was arrested for an opinion piece he published by one
of the leaders of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. The
article suggested that Mugabe has run Zimbabwe into the ground since helping the
country achieve independence in 1980.

The editor was jailed for two days, and I attended his trial. He was charged
under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. This law makes it a crime
to publish or even utter aloud any statement that may cause hatred toward the
President. I almost laughed in court. What sort of a law is this? Thankfully,
the editor was released on bail.

I attend all court hearings of arrested journalists. Partly, I am studying
for my own defense in case I, too, am in the dock one day. The charges are often
flimsy. In April, freelance journalist Stanley Karombo was arrested and held for
three days just for taking notes during Mugabe's Independence Day speech.

Police initially charged Karombo with invading Mugabe's right to privacy.
That charge fell away comically in court when the judge pointed out that the
president was making his speech in public. Karombo was eventually acquitted.

All sorts of ridiculous charges are levied that do not really exist under the
law. Countless journalists have been arrested and fined for a vague charge the
state calls "abusing journalistic privilege."

Gift Phiri, a correspondent for the London-based weekly The Zimbabwean
hugs his wife outside the Harare magistrates court. Phiri was hospitalized and
treated for injuries resulting from the beatings he received during four days in
police custody.

Fewer and fewer lawyers are willing to represent journalists in court, and
the state has begun to target them as well. Prominent media and human rights
lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa and Harrison Nkomo have been locked up several
times and tortured by police for coming to the defense of journalists.

Banana and Orange Peels

Under Zimbabwe's media law, the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, all journalists and media outlets must register with the
government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC). Every January,
after rigorous screening, the MIC hands out white plastic accreditation cards to
a handful of journalists. Most are denied.

The MIC requires journalists to surrender personal details including home
address and phone number in order to get approval. Most journalists do not
bother to apply since giving out such personal information is just too
risky.

Even with the card, there is still no guarantee of protection from the police
or the Central Intelligence Organization. A correspondent for the London-based
weekly The Zimbabwean landed in the hospital after 4 days in police
custody. His crime was covering an opposition party rally, even though he had
official accreditation to do so.

The conditions in Zimbabwe's prisons are infamous. I spent a day in one
recently after being arrested at a march. The cell reeked from the stench of
overflowing toilets, and prisoners had no choice but to relieve themselves on
the floor. The cell was crammed with four times as many people as it could hold.
No one could lie down so we had to take turns sleeping. There was very little
food available and some prisoners have starved to death.

Prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has spent years defending
Zimbabwean journalists, many of whom have been arrested for their work.

The former news editor of the Daily News, Luke Tamborinyoka, who has
been arrested several times for reporting, remembers the conditions there.
"During one of my several arrests, I sneaked in a banana and an orange," he
later told The Standard. "There was a stampede for the banana and orange
peels by inmates. Such is the level of hunger in prison."

The Last Election

Covering the election in April was a mammoth task for journalists, especially
foreign reporters. Mugabe's government drew up a list of who would be allowed to
report and broadcast from inside Zimbabwe. Media that it deemed "hostile" were
banned from reporting. This list included CNN, BBC, MSNBC and the Associated
Press. Even African outlets considered friendly to the state were denied access.

A number of foreign journalists entered Zimbabwe undercover as "tourists."
But many of them did not realize that you can't even trust other journalists
here. A number of foreign correspondents were sold out by state informers posing
as reporters and were arrested or deported as a result. But they are the lucky
ones. Their embassies and governments come to their aid when they are arrested.
We local journalists are here on our own without a safety net.

Even I never know whom to trust. Recently, a colleague with whom I'd worked
for a number of years was dismissed after it was discovered he was providing
intelligence to Mugabe. It's not even safe to share notes in a newsroom.

But I can't let this stop me. Not many things satisfy me more than finding
the truth. If atrocities are occurring here, someone has to expose them.

Related Stories

Zimbabwe: Shopping for SurvivalRead the author's first report
from Zimbabwe as part of our new iWitness series. Traveling hundreds of miles to
find food and basic supplies, our correspondent describes how impossible daily
survival has become for millions of Zimbabweans.

South Africa: "Go Away and Fight Mugabe"Also in iWitness,
FRONTLINE/World talks to a young American filmmaker over webcam who was
filming a documentary in a Johannesburg township recently when xenophobic riots
broke out. The violence was mainly directed against refugees flooding in from
neighboring Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: Shadows and LiesWatch our broadcast story from
2007, where FRONTLINE/World goes undercover in Zimbabwe to find a
population struggling with hunger and poverty, and living in
fear.

Zimbabweans
in the UK Mourn the Death of Democracy

FROM THE ZIMBABWE
VIGIL

–
27th June 2008

Zimbabweans
in the UK
marked Election Run-off day with anger and anguish.Some 150 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy to protest against the death of democracy in
Zimbabwe.The centrepiece of the demonstration was a
black-draped coffin which was presented to the nearby South African High
Commission, containing a petition calling on President Mbeki to stop supporting
former President Mugabe.The South
Africans would not allow our nominated person to present the petition because he
was wearing our Mugabe mask so it was presented instead by his dear wife Grace
dressed from top-to-toe in Harrods.The
crowd outside the High Commission shouted “Mbeki must go, Mbeki out, out, out”
with the encouragement of the well-known South African documentary maker Paul
Yule.

Vigil
supporters had walked from the Zimbabwe Embassy to the South African High
Commission behind the coffin.They
carried placards reading “Died for Democracy in
Zimbabwe”
then the name of one of the many victims of the madness since the first round of
elections, followed by “How many more have to die. Speak out.”Among the throng outside South Africa House
were several elderly British war veterans wearing their
medals.

A
few snapshots:

·The
grief could not be contained when the coffin was laid down in front of the South
African High Commission. People knelt by the coffin weeping and praying with
anguished faces and patting the coffin.

·The
police outside the High Commission fell over with laughter when they saw the old
war veterans toyi-toying. The veterans were in
Trafalgar
Square
for a concert in honour of Veterans’ Day.

·Veterans
at the Trafalgar
Square
concert were seen with their hands over their ears to protect them from the loud
music of their own concert.We asked the
person in charge to turn the amplification down for a few minutes while our
friend from St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Reverend Richard Carter, said a prayer
for Zimbabwe
at 1.45
pm.The military fellow said “Absolutely not. We
have a schedule and we are the Ministry of Defence. This is for veterans.” Our
representative replied “Well, we are the Zimbabwe Vigil and we are for dead
people”.

·Although
Mugabe was not allowed to present the petition, his good lady Grace was allowed
to present it. So now we know that even Grace doesn’t support Mugabe.

·The
clouds burst just at the time when our petition was handed over to the South
Africans.The world weeps for
Zimbabwe.

·A
man from the Embassy came and complained to one of our white supporters “There
are not any white names on these posters”. He was referring to the posters
naming the victims of the Zanu-PF onslaught since the first round of the
elections. He seemed to assume that it was OK for black Africans to kill each
other.

·At
the end of the day we tied the 100 placards in the bright colours of the
Zimbabwe
flag with the names of those who have died since the first round of the
elections around the metal barriers that enclose our protest.We also left the black-draped, coffin-shaped
ballot box propped up against the Embassy door with a cartoon showing Mbeki and
Mugabe laughing “Crisis, what crisis” against a background of burning xenophobic
violence.

·Thanks
to our mock Mugabe and Grace, Fungayi Mabhunu and Gugu Ndloviu Tutani, and to
her husband Dumi Tutani who led the music with the help of Jenatry Muranganwa
Thanks so much to our young supporters who helped to make this demonstration
possible: Felix and Winny for the coffin and Hazel, Rowan, Annie and Rebecca for
the posters.Thanks also to David who
was responsible for the brilliant artwork of the placards and to Patty who
galvanized everyone to make this possible..

·Jack
Cooper took pains to join us. He now lives in
Guatemala…
an exile like so many..

The
Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand,
London, takes
place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe.
The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in
Zimbabwe.
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Mugabe's secret war - in Britain

Independent, UK

By Cahal Milmo and
Kim SenguptaSaturday, 28 June 2008

Agents of Robert Mugabe's
regime are harassing and intimidating Zimbabwean dissidents in Britain in an
attempt to silence his political rivals and disrupt vital fundraising for
Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Mr
Mugabe's feared security force, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO),
is waging a highly-organised campaign to terrify the 4,000 MDC members
living in the UK. It involves surveillance, threats against family members
in Zimbabwe, menacing late-night phone calls and bogus messages saying that
fundraising activities are cancelled or disrupted.

The existence of the
campaign was confirmed last night by British security sources, who said the
targeting of dissidents and MDC members was stepped up in recent weeks as Mr
Mugabe sought to maintain his grip on power. Police are investigating a
number of incidents, including an alleged phone call to an MDC member who
was told that his parents in Zimbabwe faced eviction unless he stopped
criticising Mr Mugabe.

Yesterday, militias loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF
party roamed Zimbabwean villages and towns to press-gang MDC supporters into
voting for Mr Mugabe in the discredited second round of the presidential
election. The European Union described the vote as a "sham".

But
while the brutal treatment that Mr Mugabe's followers have meted out in his
own country in recent weeks, with the deaths of at least 80 people, has
provoked international condemnation, tactics designed to instil fear and
panic have been deployed out of the public gaze against the 20,000
Zimbabweans living in Britain.

MDC officials said a key target of the
CIO operation appeared to be the money - between £5,000 and £10,000 a month,
which was being sent from the UK to back Mr Tsvangirai's campaign until he
withdrew from the ballot last week. With inflation in Zimbabwe running at
three million per cent, hard cash is vital to buy campaign essentials such
as fuel and printing supplies.

Tendai Goneso, treasurer of the MDC's UK
and Ireland branch, said: "It is a highly-organised and co-ordinated
campaign to intimidate members and interrupt our ability to send money to
support the presidential campaign. Mr Mugabe has exported the methods he has
used against Zimbabweans at home to the heart of the former colonial
power.

"The money was very important for enabling us to keep Mr
Tsvangirai campaigning. We can buy 10,000 litres of fuel each month and send
regular consignments of mobile phones, and that is what they are trying to
stop.

"Our members are being filmed, they are whispered to that they are
doing the work of the 'white man', they receive phone calls saying they are
on a list in Harare. It is the sort of onslaught that can only have come
from within the regime."

An investigation by The Independent,
corroborated by British security sources, found a range of strategies used
to disrupt and coerce Mr Mugabe's opponents, many of them asylum-seekers who
feel unable to complain to British authorities. The tactics
include:

*Filming of demonstrators outside the Zimbabwean embassy in
London, followed by telephone calls to activists, warning that their details
have been passed to the government in Harare, or that their families will
face punitive sanctions;

*The seizure of 60,000 MDC newspapers sent
to Harare in secret for distribution at election rallies, when only a
handful of London-based activists knew of the consignment. This followed
alleged attempts by CIO agents and Zanu-PF to infiltrate the MDC in the UK
and obtain financial records and member details;

*The sending of
hundreds of emails and text messages to MDC members, cancelling meetings and
fund-raising events or giving incorrect times and dates for such
activities;

*The offer of financial inducements in return for ending
criticism of the Mugabe regime and the threat of future retribution if a
target does not comply;

*Disruption of dissident and MDC meetings in
Walsall, Wolverhampton and Peterborough, where Zanu-PF members shouted
pro-Mugabe slogans and photographed members;

*The alleged
interception of information passed from the MDC's London office to its
headquarters in Harare, leading to the seizure of mobile phones sent from
Britain for party organisers in rural areas to record violence against
voters. Dissidents hiding at the MDC HQ and churches in Harare, whose
presence was mentioned in a phone call to London last week, were arrested in
a police raid the day after the call.

British security officials said
the tactics of Mugabe agents and supporters were similar to those used by
other authoritarian states against exiles based in the UK. However, they
underlined that there has so far been no evidence of serious physical
assault. Investigations are understood to be under way at Scotland Yard and
several other forces, including the West Midlands, following several
complaints.

Last night, the Zimbabwean embassy in London declined to
comment on the claims, but there is evidence that the campaign has spread
across Britain. The Independent was told of an attempt to disrupt MDC
meetings in Wolverhampton, where several men repeatedly harassed and
threatened members, warning them to leave the organisation. Offensive text
messages were also sent to branch members. Complaints to police resulted in
a restraining order being imposed on a 22-year-old man. Kumbirayi
Machekanyanga, vice-chairman of the branch, said: "Anyone wishing to express
dissenting views is welcome but these guys were of a different order. They
had clearly come to stop whatever we were doing to organise against Mugabe.
It took action by police to send them away."

The pressure to end
public anti-Mugabe protests has ranged from appeals not to side with the
"white neo-colonialists" to the promise of money if those who have
previously spoken out in the media desist immediately.

"Robert", a former
senior CIO agent living in Britain, told The Independent: "The Zimbabwean
community in Britain is a small pond and there are now some big CIO fish in
it. Harare has given the order to keep the MDC here under control, spoil
their efforts and scare or seduce their members. They cannot resort to
outright violence but anything up to that point will be considered
justified. It is part of a wider battle for survival by the regime. They are
running scared of what will happen if they lose power."

The Milosevic medicine

Zimbabweans must now be pragmatic and learn from the
Serbian model of deposing a strongman

Jonathan SteeleThe
Guardian,Saturday June 28, 2008

While Zimbabwe's obscene charade of a
runoff election played itself out yesterday, foreign reaction still seemed
stuck in two grooves: either Mugabe-bashing or hand-wringing. The former is
well justified, after everything the Zimbabwean president has done over the
past few months. But, however muscular the rhetoric, it will be no more
effective in producing regime change than passive despair.

There is a
third way. It goes beyond denunciation and punishment, though it involves
bitter medicine. The only route that will avoid yet more bloodshed is a
negotiated transition of power in which legal immunity and guarantees of
safety are given to the very men who have been responsible for the violence
of the past few months. I am not referring primarily to Mugabe. It is the
security and police chiefs around him who hold the key.

Zimbabwe is not a
failed state awash with guns, or under the sway of roaming gangs of rebels
and warlords who ignore the government, on the pattern of parts of west
Africa or Afghanistan. Zanu-PF, the ruling party, remains an efficient
hierarchy. Its top men can call off the so-called liberation war veterans
and other jobless youth who have been terrorising the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change since the first round of elections in March - and may
be unleashed again when the runoff is over. The trick is to get them to want
to.

The MDC's wiser heads have long recognised this. They have held
intermittent talks with Zanu-PF's leaders with the aim of forming a
government of national unity that will maintain jobs for some Zanu-PF
figures while allowing others to retire with dignity. The key issues concern
the role of outside mediators, what pressures should be applied to get
Zanu-PF to accept that power must be shared, and who should lead the new
government.

Thabo Mbeki's quiet diplomacy has run its course. The South
African president's mediation was too quiet and not diplomatic enough. He
gave excessive credence to Mugabe's vague offers of talks, and with his
refusal to condemn the violence he became hopelessly one-sided. Now African
leaders in the Southern African Development Community are preparing a new
negotiating team to work with the two sides in Harare.

There is much
talk of finding an African solution. Kofi Annan, the former United Nations
secretary general, has offered himself as a mediator. But the agreement he
brokered in Kenya after that country's flawed election is not the right
precedent. Zimbabwe's constitution does not provide for a prime minister so
there is no obvious way of splitting power at the top, as in Kenya.
Moreover, the Annan deal left President Mwai Kibaki in power while offering
the post of prime minister to the opposition, in spite of strong evidence
that it had won the election. The opposition reluctantly agreed. Kibaki
might have got his officials to cheat, but he had not launched murder on
Mugabe's scale. In Zimbabwe, anger is higher. The Zimbabwean president has
forfeited all claim to legitimacy and must leave.

The best model for
Zimbabwe happens to be European. October 2000 in Belgrade is the pattern
that Zimbabwe, with luck, will follow. The scenario is uncannily similar. A
ruthless strongman loses the first round but gets his election commission to
say the opposition did not reach 50% and therefore a runoff is needed. The
opposition refuses to take part for fear the ruling party will organise its
cheating better the second time; and street protests are held. Those of us
who stood outside the Yugoslavian parliament and watched the police fade
away before a bulldozer at the head of an angry crowd smashed into it were
not entirely surprised. The police had not gone over to the people, however
romantic that might have been. Some sympathised with the protesters, but the
switch of loyalties mainly flowed from orders after behind-the-scenes
negotiations that Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition candidate, led with
Slobodan Milosevic's security chiefs. They were assured of safety if they
changed sides. Milosevic met Kostunica next day and threw in the
towel.

Some western leaders claim Milosevic was brought down by years of
sanctions. Tony Blair often says Nato's bombing in 1999 removed him from
power. But Milosevic's downfall came more than a year later, when the hard
men realised it was better to sacrifice their boss than themselves. Their
Zimbabwean counterparts are probably making similar calculations.

So
if the EU puts sanctions on these men, they need to be conditional. Make it
clear they will be lifted as soon as Zanu-PF's hardliners accept an MDC-led
government and tell Mugabe to go into retirement, elsewhere in Africa or
preferably to a villa in China. Better still, hold the sanctions with the
understanding they start only if the MDC negotiations, backed by SADC
mediators, fail.

It will be painful to let killers go free, but this is a
case where justice should give way to pragmatism. The liberty of a few dozen
thugs is the necessary price for millions of Zimbabweans to have a chance of
life.

FAQ: Where the country goes from here

All eyes will be on Thabo
Mbeki

The Guardian,Saturday June 28, 2008

Is anyone going to
recognise this election?

There will be a few countries, particularly in
Africa, that will support Mugabe either because they dislike the pressure
from Europe and America, or because they cannot claim to hold democratic
elections themselves.

A key moment will come on Monday: Mugabe has said
he will attend an African Union summit in Egypt to challenge his critics,
and other African leaders may be forced to choose whether to back him or
snub him. All eyes will be on Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, who up
to now has been Mugabe's most powerful and reliable friend. Even countries
that have denounced the elections are likely to maintain diplomatic
relations with Zimbabwe, on the grounds that those relations are with the
country not the government. Britain and others will try to strengthen ties
to the opposition MDC on the grounds that it won the parliamentary vote in
March.

What happens next?

Mugabe has said he will enter into talks
with the opposition after the vote, suggesting that he would try to form a
"government of national unity" by coopting some members of the MDC. There
could be reprisals against those who refuse to take part, and against
Zimbabweans who do not have ink on their fingers showing they have
voted.

Was it possible to vote MDC?

People could have voted for
the MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, whose name remained on the ballot,
despite his withdrawal. But few would have taken the risk.

Were there
election monitors?

The regional group, the Southern African Development
Community sent more than 200 observers to the elections and Zimbabwean
pro-democracy groups also tried to field observers although they met
repeated bureaucratic obstacles. But the observers could not move freely,
particularly in the areas that had witnessed the worst pre-election
violence.

Are there divisions within Zanu-PF?

Zanu-PF is deeply
divided over the course Mugabe is taking. One of the vice-presidents, Joice
Mujuru and her husband Solomon are thought to lead one of the factions in
the party's politburo. Another is led by a former finance minister, Simba
Makoni, who stood against Mugabe in the first round of the presidential
elections. But since the election loss in March, the politburo has ceded
power to a narrower group of hardliners and generals in joint operations
command, led by Mugabe's lieutenant, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The world's most powerful industrialised countries denounced
Zimbabwe's election as a sham yesterday as the United States threatened to
push for UN sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government.

The
condemnation of the single-candidate presidential election came at a meeting
of foreign ministers from the G8 - the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Russia and Japan.

Criticising the Zimbabwean government's actions,
the group said: "We will not accept the legitimacy of any government that
does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people."

Earlier this
week the security council issued an equally damning statement, reflecting a
high degree of consensus in the international community that yesterday's
vote was not legitimate.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state,
indicated that the US was prepared to push the security council further.
"Those operating in Zimbabwe should know that there are those ... who
believe that the security council should consider sanctions," she said. "We
intend to bring up the issue of Zimbabwe in the council. We will see what
the council decides to do."

But a parallel meeting of African foreign
ministers in Egypt was unable to agree a common stance. Jean Ping, the
African Union's executive chairman, avoided mentioning Zimbabwe in a survey
of the continent's problems. Ping alluded only indirectly to the crisis,
saying: "We will engage in a deep reflection on the general problem of
elections on this continent."

African reaction is likely to be critical
in determining how long Mugabe can survive in office in the face of outrage
in the rest of the world over the regime's treatment of the opposition.
Ministers from across Africa meeting at the Egyptian resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh were split between those who wanted to condemn the vote as a sham
and those unwilling to criticise the Mugabe government.

Several of
Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community have
denounced the election campaign and called for the vote to be put off. But
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has so far shielded Mugabe from
punitive measures and it was clear yesterday there were other African
countries, particularly those without genuine democratic institutions, which
are reluctant to condemn the vote.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign
minister told Associated Press Television: "Egypt will not prejudge the
results of the elections or the results of the deliberations."

The
decisive moment at the AU summit is likely to come at Monday's session,
which Mugabe has said he will attend to challenge his accusers among his
fellow African leaders.

"I would like some African leaders who are
making these statements to point at me and we would see if those fingers
would be cleaner than mine," he said in remarks printed yesterday from an
election-eve rally. "When I go to the AU meeting next week, I am going to
challenge some leaders to point out when we have had worse
elections."

According to reports circulating in diplomatic circles
yesterday, Mugabe's joint operations command was planning to form a
"government of national unity" after the election by offering personal
incentives to breakaway members of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), and persecuting those that refuse. The new government would
then be recognised by Mbeki and a few other heads of state in an attempt to
create momentum behind it.

But most, if not all, the G8 and permanent
security council members are expected to deny recognition to any government
led by Mugabe following an unopposed vote and a sustained campaign of
government-backed violence

Analysis: Africa's democracy deficit hinders
action against Mugabe

The TimesJune 28, 2008

Jonathan ClaytonRobert Mugabe has made a career out
of calling Africa's bluff. On Monday, he is likely to do it again.

Mr
Mugabe has said that he will turn up at the annual summit of the African
Union (AU) in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Freshly
"re-elected", and probably by then hastily sworn in for another five-year
term, he will challenge the 53-member body to prevent him from taking his
rightful place.

On past performances, the AU will agree on an
innocuous statement on the need for talks and try to move on to the next
subject. This year, it may not be quite so easy. Several states have broken
their silence and attacked Zimbabwe's leader for his brutal assault on
democracy. For the first time almost the entire continent has come to
believe that he cannot be allowed to stay in office.

South Africa's
African National Congress (ANC) denounced yesterday what it called "outright
terror" in the country. Even President Mbeki, who as the official mediator
for the crisis has avoided public criticism of Mr Mugabe, is said to have
had enough after receiving "compelling evidence" of
intimidation.

"With such statements it is difficult to see how the AU
can officially recognize the result," Buchizya Mseteka, a Zambian political
analyst, said. "The credibility of the AU will be at risk."But the AU
has a big problem: very few of its members can claim the moral high ground
when it comes to democracy and respect for human rights. With a few
exceptions, Africa's much proclaimed renaissance has come to a shuddering
halt. In fact, many commentators would say that the AU's march towards
democracy has gone in the wrong direction.

Elections in Nigeria, the
continent's most populous nation, in April 2007 were farcical, with
widespread vote-rigging. In Kenya, until recently one of Africa's showcase
countries, dozens of people were killed when violence followed the highly
dubious re-election of the ruling party. Britain was forced to suspend aid
to Ethiopia, previously one of Tony Blair's favourites, when paramilitary
police shot dead students protesting against the result of a 2005
poll.

The rest of the Horn of Africa is a no-go area for democracy with
Sudan condemned as one of the world's worst abusers of human rights.
Eritrea, once lauded for its enlightened rule, has slowly descended into a
nasty dictatorship with hundreds of government critics held without
trial.

North Africa is also in bad shape, including Egypt, the host of
the summit. President Mubarak shows no signs of giving up office and
elections this year received widespread condemnation. Tunisia and Algeria
are constantly cited for human rights violations, including
torture.

Mr Mugabe knows that Africa is hardly in a position to preach to
him. This week, when criticism of him was mounting, he told a rally. "I am
going to go to that AU summit . . . I want to see whose finger there is
clean."

The AU changed its name from its forerunner, the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU), in July 2002 and supposedly adopted a tougher mandate
on "human rights, good governance and democracy". It is based in the OAU's
old headquarters in Addis Ababa and, like the OAU, it is broke. "Very few
members have paid their dues. This has handicapped it from the start: there
is a lot of truth in the joke that the AU is the OAU without the
organisation," a Western diplomat, who has had close dealings with it,
said.

An AU force sent to Darfur was ridiculed as a "Keystone Cops"
outfit and a mission in Somalia is still awaiting troops one year after
being dispatched. So far, its biggest success was an "invasion" last March
of the island of Anjouan in the archipelago nation of Comoros, which had
wanted to break away. However, the renegade leader, a French-trained former
gendarme, managed to escape dressed as a woman.

Is Mugabe the real problem in Zimbabwe?

The TimesJune 28, 2008

We are
deluding ourselves if we think that getting rid of one mad, old tyrant will
stop the barbarismMatthew ParrisIn politics as in our personal lives,
just six words comprise one of the commonest falsehoods around. Those six
words are: "It can't go on like this." But it can. I've come to the
melancholy conclusion that in Zimbabwe it must.

This weekend there
will be voices in our Prime Minister's ear suggesting how in one bound he
might cast off his dithering reputation. To help to broker the toppling of
Robert Mugabe (they will whisper) might be just the sort of history-making
that rescued Margaret Thatcher from doldrums at home, before Galtieri
invaded the Falklands. In The Times this week Lord (Paddy) Ashdown of
Norton-sub-Hamdon suggested that intervention may become necessary. Mr Brown
will think hard about this; list the pros; list the cons; dither; and
finally decide it's all too difficult.

Well let's hear it for
dithering. Beware the widely held opinion that all we need is Robert
Mugabe's head on a stick. In Iraq we called this the decapitation strategy,
and duly secured the required head - Saddam's - on the right stick. Then it
all went wrong. The ingredients necessary for a liberal democracy were not,
it turned out, there. Why should things be different in Africa?

Not
even the most hot-headed interventionist (I assume) is seriously proposing a
unilateral British invasion; and not many propose invasion by a coalition of
Western powers. It should anyway be doubted whether this would be militarily
possible. Zimbabwe is a landlocked country and the active co-operation of
her neighbours should be key to any kind of occupation, however temporary.
That being so, it would make more political sense for the intervention to be
African-led, or at least appear to be so, by one or more of her
neighbours.

The idea probably being canvassed would be for an African
ultimatum to Harare, stiffened by the threat of a Western-backed but
African-led invasion, with or without the use of European or American
service personnel, but perhaps with a measure of Western military support
and reconstruction money behind the scenes. It is possible that a mix of
determined international moral exhortation, and private cajolery,
development-aid bribery and threats, could secure such an apparently African
initiative.Not only would this invasion be doable, it would probably never
prove necessary: the threat alone should be sufficient to trigger a coup
within Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party, whereupon the old man would be dispatched,
imprisoned or exported, and a leading group of Zanu (PF)-backed politicans
and generals would take temporary power, promising to talk to the MDC, and
hold elections as soon as practicable.

So far - it might seem - so
good. And if there were televised scenes of crowd jubilation as a statue of
Mugabe was torn from its plinth in a municipal square somewhere in Harare
(or more likely Bulawayo), so much the better.

But after that, what?
Stop for a minute and ask yourself this: who has really been running
Zimbabwe for the past five years? Do you honestly think it's just an old,
deluded man, a King Lear minus the humanity, who has been organising the hit
squads, arm-twisting the judiciary and turning the police into a private
militia? Is it really only Robert Mugabe who has been diverting Zimbabwe's
resources into private pockets?

Of course not. This is the whole culture
of the governing party, Zanu (PF). You've seen the TV pictures of Zanu (PF)
"thugs" rampaging across the bush with iron bars, in pursuit of Morgan
Tsvangirai's supporters. That word "thug" is handy for the Western media
because it throws a linguistic cordon round what we want to distinguish as
an horrific minority, virtually unconnected with what we assume to be the
great majority of peace-loving Zimbabweans... er, Zanu (PF) supporters. Or
so they were and continued to be, through all Mugabe's early atrocities, his
massacres in Matabeleland and confiscations of white farmers' lands, until
the economy hit the rocks so hard that they could no longer be sure of their
next meal. Only then did they start to desert, and we may suppose that to
this day, millions in the rural areas have still not deserted.

Mugabe
is not unpopular in Zimbabwe today because his Government has been
autocratic and brutal. He is not unpopular because the minority (but
substantial) Matabele tribe have been persecuted, killed and dispossessed by
a governing party whose power base is among the Mashona majority. He is not
unpopular because he and his wife are greedy and flaunt their wealth, or
because corruption in his Government is widespread. He is unpopular because
his administration is broken and there is nothing for ordinary people to
eat.

Many Zimbabweans hunger not for liberal democracy, but for food.
By corollary, much of Morgan Tsvangirai's power base is either an urban
minority or among the minority tribes who have received a raw deal from the
distribution of resources by Zanu (PF). They too, many of them, hunger not
for liberal democracy but a turning of the tables. Unless we are careful,
today's TV pictures may tomorrow be thrown into reverse, and we may watch
those who were once in flight, now in pursuit; and those who were once in
pursuit, now in flight; the iron bars having changed hands. The Matabele in
history were always a more warlike people than the Mashona pastoralists.
Bulawayo (their capital) means "place of slaughter". Jacob Zuma, the next
South African President, comes from the same (Zulu) family of
tribes.

And into this richly complicated picture we Westerners suppose we
can charge and, by precipitating the removal of one old madman, conjure into
existence a transformed national political consciousness. Do you think that
when Mugabe asked last week "how can a pen fight a gun?" he was simply
issuing a threat? He was not. It was a populist remark. He was making an
observation about the business of politics across much of his continent: an
observation that will not have outraged, but amused, his intended
audience.

Plenty of people in Zimbabwe, including plenty of white
business people and farmers, will have done deals with Zanu (PF). There will
be an intricate network of client- relationships, of patronage and of
diffused and shared power. It will probably prove possible to shift and
replace one or two figures at the top. It may even be possible to seat a
couple of opposition figures at the government high table. The West
certainly can, and does, run puppet autocracies in Africa. But if anyone
thinks this will be the beginning of genuine multiparty politics, the
toleration of opposition and the rule of law, such hopes will be
disappointed.

For that, an outside power or league of powers would need
to occupy Zimbabwe and begin the process of re-creating government, the
executive and judiciary; purging the military and police, redistributing
land and resources that have been stolen, identifying and prosecuting the
culprits... and paying for it. I doubt we have the stomach for
this.

"Thanks for that," you may say, "but what alternative do you
propose?"

I have none. To rescue Zimbabwe is beyond not our capacity, but
our will. We can only wail and wring our hands.

CommentsMugabe is not the problem. The United Nations is the problem. A one world
government is the answer. National boundaries need to be traversed to by an
all powerful body which deals with such matters. A revamped UN could do that
role.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

You have already
forgotten about Idi Amin, hid buddy Mobutu of the Congo, the Md Emperor
Bokassa of the C A R (Giscars D'Estaings old pal )and 95 % of all African
leaders whos only aim in life is to line their pockets (or Swiss Bank
Accounts ) from foreign aid. The only answer is to stop all aid now

M
Wilson, Bidache, france

You make good points, but they are points that
could have been made about Nazi Germany as well - majority tribe picking on
minority tribes (jews and Romany), irredeemably violent tribe (Germans
started how many wars?) whose anthem was basically "us over everyone else" -
and yet they turned out ok!

ANC says UK to blame for Zim crisis

CAPE TOWN - South
Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said on Friday Britain
was largely responsible for Zimbabwe's current crisis.

In its weekly
newsletter published on the ANC Today website the ANC said as the former
colonial power Britain was chiefly responsible for much of the questions
around the land issue in Zimbabwe.

"The ANC is very mindful of the
obligations Britain assumed in relation to Zimbabwe at the Lancaster House
talks. Chief among these was resolution of the land question, i.e. undoing
the consequences of well nigh 100 years of British colonial
domination.

"A large measure of responsibility for the current crisis is
attributable to the ex-colonial power because it has reneged on that
undertaking," it said.

As in the rest of Africa, colonialism in Zimbabwe
was a system of "arbitrary, capricious power exercised by a distant colonial
office and delegated to local white settlers who wielded it as agents of the
imperial power".

The newsletter said the people of Zimbabwe, under
the leadership of the Patriotic Front, had waged an armed liberation
struggle for "national self-determination, to be attained through democratic
elections in which all adult citizens . . . would have the untrammelled
right to elect the government of their choice.

"Restoration of the
land seized during colonialism to the indigenous people was a central plank
of that programme as well."

The ANC said it was now "deeply dismayed" by
the actions of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF government, which was "riding
roughshod" over democratic rights that people fought very hard to
attain.

The South African ruling party said the way forward for Zimbabwe
would be through earnest dialogue among all the political players in that
country.

"The ANC will play its role, within the framework of the SADC
mandate, in searching for a solution that will bring an end to the suffering
of the Zimbabwean people.

"We have noted, with grave concern, the
statements of the Zimbabwean government to the effect that the run-off
elections will proceed as planned.

"We urge the government of Zimbabwe to
apply its mind, dispassionately, to the situation at hand in its country and
our region. We appeal to the government to take up the challenge of finding
a negotiated settlement to the current impasse," it said.
?

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe defied calls to postpone Friday's
run-off election after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out saying
a free and fair vote was impossible under the current climate of violence
and intimidation in the country.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
rejected Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the election poll, saying his letter
of withdrawal was filed too late and had no legal force.

The
opposition leader, who has remained holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare
fearing for his safety, says 86 members of his Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party have been killed and another 200 000 displaced by
political violence since March.

The Southern African Development
Community's peace and security troika, Western governments and the United
Nations Security Council have denounced today's vote as a sham citing
political violence and called for the run-off election to be
cancelled.

But Mugabe insisted on going ahead with the election that was
being held because Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 presidential
vote but failed to secure the margin required to takeover the presidency. -
ZimOnline

Ministers accused over return of refugees

Ministers were
accused of "breathtaking double standards" for attempting to send thousands
of failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe, despite the government-sponsored
violence there.

Campaigners expressed horror that the Home Office is
pressing ahead with a High Court battle to deport up to 13,000 Zimbabweans
despite warnings they face persecution if they are returned to their
homeland because they have sought asylum in Britain.

Refugee groups
will stage a final attempt on Wednesday to appeal against a ruling that
could allow ministers to begin deportations.

Earlier this week, Gordon
Brown denounced Robert Mugabe's regime as a "criminal cabal", while the
Foreign Office warned against all travel to Zimbabwe. But No 10 yesterday
told campaigners they "expect shortly to be in a position to enforce the
return of those unsuccessful Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who have been found
not to need the protection of the UK yet refuse to leave
voluntarily".

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said:
"Gordon Brown has said 'Britain will not shirk our responsibilities to the
people of Zimbabwe' and that includes those who have come here seeking our
protection. No one should be sent back to Zimbabwe at the
moment."

The Home Office has been battling in court for almost three
years to win the right to deport failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers. Next
week's hearing in the Court of Appeal centres on a woman known only as HS -
her identity is protected by an anonymity order. A doctor, she faces removal
even though her brother has been allowed to settle in the UK because of his
involvement with the opposition MDC.

Sarah Harland, co-ordinator of
the Zimbabwe Association in Britain, said: "I think the double standards are
breathtaking. It would be insane to send people back at this time."

A
government source said there were no "immediate" plans to enforce returns to
Zimbabwe. A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said: "We have made clear
our grave concerns about the appalling human rights situation in Zimbabwe,
and continue to press for an end to abuses. We will continue to provide
protection for any asylum-seekers that we or an independent judge deems in
need of protection. That's a proud tradition in our country and we intend to
honour it."

Zimbabwe: Leftists to blame for Robert Mugabe's
blood-letting

The Telegraph

By Simon HefferLast Updated: 12:01am BST 28/06/2008Page
1 of 3

Have your sayRead comments

A few years
ago, when the tyrant of Zimbabwe was moving from being wicked to being
downright evil, I wrote that we should invade Harare, depose him, and
supervise free elections. Invited to appear on a BBC programme to defend
this stance, I was assailed by an "Africa expert" who told me that
diplomatic pressure on Mugabe was bound to work, that the idea of sending
the Parachute Regiment in to sort the monster out was offensively
colonialist, and that I was wrong.

White liberals like him are
as much to blame for the terror, starvation, brutality and genocide that now
scar this once-rich and stable country. The supposedly civilised world has
allowed Mugabe and his horrors to happen, mainly unchecked. Sanctions on his
country merely starve those who disagree with him. Zimbabwe has all the
natural, and had all the human, resources to be an example to the rest of
Africa. It is now merely a symbol of what happens when a dictator takes
charge, and those who might rein him in simply look away.

So it
is infuriating to hear some Leftists and liberals saying, through the teeth
of their post-imperial guilt, that perhaps an armed intervention is the only
way to rid the world of this brute. Had this been done years ago, when they
took the opposite view, how many lives might have been saved? How many
productive people, black and white, would have felt able to stay in
Zimbabwe, rather than flee with their talents abroad? Would it still be a
country with a life expectancy in the low thirties, something not heard of
in Europe since the early Middle Ages? How proud does the Left, with its
stupidly romantic notions of the inviolate nature of "black freedom
fighters", feel about what it has so ably helped Mugabe
achieve?

Of course, even now the Leftists who are recanting cannot
bear the thought of a military operation being conducted by Britain alone -
not that our exploited and resource-starved Armed Forces are in a position
to take out Mugabe. It is argued that there should be a UN or multinational
force, something that most of us old cynics will believe only when we see
it. Frankly, I couldn't care less who liberates Zimbabwe - North Korea, the
Taliban or Venezuela are welcome to it: they couldn't be any worse than the
incumbent.

Yet the gutlessness of our Foreign Office continues.
The disastrous Lord Malloch-Brown, who is to international diplomacy what a
lamp post is to a dog, said this week that it would be wrong for "the mangy
old British lion" to strip Mugabe of his honorary knighthood. Let us ignore
for the moment the question of whether a Foreign Office minister should
insult his country so, another sign that this oaf is unfit for office. Four
days later the knighthood did indeed go, on a recommendation from David
Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to the Queen. Mr Miliband had said just two
weeks earlier that removing the knighthood was not a good idea. And the
Tories are no better. This week they ordered the suspension of a prospective
parliamentary candidate who made the blindingly obvious observation that the
late Ian Smith was better than Mugabe. It is time these people grew
up.

I know what a shock it must be to Leftists of all parties, with
their uncritical adoration of African leaders from the saintly, such as
Nelson Mandela, to the repulsive, such as Mugabe, to see that sometimes
black people can be evil too. But that is the truth. And Zimbabwe may be the
prologue to what may happen in South Africa after a decade of failure by
Thabo Mbeki is followed by the rule of the dubious Jacob Zuma. It may be
very uncomfortable and embarrassing for whites to intervene to stop the
butchery of black tyrants. But if they don't, hecatombs of lives will be
lost.

Mugabe: The Epitome of Shame

OhMyNews

[Opinion] Zimbabwe
president defies international opinion and goes ahead with sham solo
election

Njei Moses Timah

Published 2008-06-28 08:37
(KST)

Because of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's inordinate quest to
cling to power, African nationalists bow their heads in shame as one of
theirs turns himself into a ridiculous comic character. Mugabe, 84, has
transformed himself from a darling revolutionary and nationalist into an
embarrassing and underachieving despot.

It is becoming clear that
Mugabe's sole reason for organizing the recent elections was to legitimize
his stay at the helm of that beleaguered country. He expected those
conducting the elections to understand and play along with his game. Some of
the election officials are now languishing in jail for permitting Mugabe's
opponents to win the parliamentary elections.

Even before the elections,
many things seemed to be working against the increasingly arrogant Mugabe.
His biological clock was ticking faster and louder, some of his cronies were
deserting him, the economy was making a mockery of his intelligence and the
old man was running out of ideas and political survival options.

The
irony of Zimbabwe's tragedy is such that it has even unified people that
usually are at opposite ends of the ideological divide. Populist South
African Bishop Desmond Tutu and the neoconservative US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice have both referred to the Mugabe regime as a "disgrace."
Indeed, few people will disagree with them.

Although it is a trend in
many parts of Africa for presidents to cling to power at all cost, Mugabe's
case is particularly disturbing because his rise to power was celebrated
more as an African affair than a Zimbabwean one, and he was looked upon as
role model. It is an irony that at a time when Mugabe is trying to extend
his 28-year rule over a crumbling Zimbabwe, his counterpart in neighboring
and stable Botswana is stepping down after completing his two five-year
terms as president.

Mugabe equally failed to learn from Nelson Mandela,
whose country (South Africa) now supports a disproportionate number of
Zimbabwean economic refugees. Mugabe has become so immune to embarrassment
that he does not see it as outrageous that his citizens will need millions
of Zimbabwean dollars just to purchase a loaf of bread.

If you take
into consideration that barely five years ago, US$1 was worth about 57
Zimbabwean dollars you start wondering what is going on. He has betrayed not
only Zimbabweans but the teeming millions of people all over Africa that
invested their hope on him. Mugabe owes Africans an apology for subjecting
them to his embarrassing rule.

As it became obvious that Mugabe's ZANU-PF
was losing the legislative and presidential elections, observers started
focusing attention on the slow, piecemeal release of the results. There were
concerns that the delay might be deliberate and give time for the Mugabe
camp to regroup and devise new methods to retain power.

Those fears
were confirmed when, one week later, Mugabe's cronies in the ZANU-PF called
for a recount of the vote and his "war veteran" cronies reportedly started
to occupy white farms. The opposition charged that Mugabe was waging war on
the people, and ZANU-PF itself hinted that Mugabe was ready for a rerun even
though official results were not still known. The rerun became a one-man
show.

Zimbabweans were voting more against Mugabe than for Morgan
Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai is a rallying point against the continued stay of
Mugabe. The dire situation in Zimbabwe is such that a majority of the people
will vote for anybody just to get the old man off their
backs.

Unfortunately for Zimbabwe and Africa, Mugabe and those that have
unfairly benefited from his misrule were quick to hatch the diabolical plan
that has seen many innocent Zimbabweans hacked to death in order to
terrorize and intimidate the opposition to withdraw from the race. Mugabe's
tactics have yielded results; the opposition leader withdrew from the race,
leaving the old man unchallenged.

In the face of mounting
international criticism and a UN Security Council resolution condemning his
tactics, Mugabe and his cronies continue to play the race and land cards and
to portray their opponents as the unpatriotic lackeys of "white imperialists
and colonialists."

This is outdated political logic. It is repulsive,
cowardly and cheap propaganda directed toward the gullible dispossessed and
unsophisticated Zimbabweans. This is once more a case where an otherwise
educated and intelligent African is employing his talents to mislead the
people. What a tragedy for this troubled continent!

This is a sample
of what some of Africa's prominent sons have said about Mugabe and
Zimbabwe:

Wole Soyinka: "Mugabe, I regret to say, has joined the ranks of
the Mobutu, the Sergeant Does, the Emperor Bokassas etc. His credentials as
an African nationalist have been bargained away for a mess of
power."

Desmond Tutu: "He has really turned into a kind of Frankenstein
for his people."

Robert Mugabe: a lonely monster

Graham Boynton reviews Dinner with
Mugabe by Heidi Holland and Bitter Harvest: Zimbabwe and the Aftermath of
its Independence by Ian Smith

Had Robert Mugabe been a white
politician he would surely have been removed from power years
ago.

Can you imagine the international community standing by while
a colonial ruler reduced an African country to grinding poverty, at the same
time murdering, torturing and starving its citizens into submission on the
scale that Mugabe has, simply because they refused to vote for
him?

How can this be acceptable to the political leaders of South
Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania or the United Nations? And yet,
for the entire 21st century the perpetrator of the continent's worst human
rights abuses since the heyday of Amin, Bokassa and Charles Taylor appears
to have attracted only muted censure.

Indeed he was the
recipient of standing ovations at recent African Union conferences and
earlier this year he and his ghastly wife were able to travel to Rome - with
an entourage of bodyguards and chefs - to join, of all things, a UN debate
on the global food crisis.

It is with this perspective that these
two books now have to be viewed. Had Ian Smith's autobiography - formerly
The Great Betrayal and now re-titled with a brief postscript and a new
foreword by Rupert Cornwell - been published at a time when Zimbabwe was
enjoying a relatively successful post-colonial existence, it would be seen
as the boring recollections of an unpopular colonial rebel who took his
country to war and lost.

However, Smith, who died in a South
African nursing home last November, can now quite reasonably be regarded -
in the context of the ruthless politician who followed him and the
catastrophe that is the country he once led - as a pragmatist whom
present-day Zimbabweans would probably prefer as their ruler.

I
have met both men. Smith was, as advertised on the box, a dull,
down-to-earth man who sincerely believed the country he knew as Rhodesia was
better off under white rule.

This view in the late Sixties and
early Seventies was quite at odds with the way the world was turning and he
was branded an international pariah. Mugabe, by contrast, swept to power on
a wave of post-colonial, Marxist/Maoist-infused African nationalism and was
hailed as a liberator. I interviewed him during the 1980 election that
turned Rhodesia into Zimbabwe and, although he made the hairs on the back of
my neck stand up, I found myself unable to swim against the tide as I was a
white African liberal.

White man bad, black man good was our
mantra, this despite the fact that we all suspected Mugabe had had his
charismatic guerrilla leader, Josiah Tongogara, bumped off in a road
accident and that he was already preparing to wipe out his rival Matabeles
in a genocide that may in the end have killed 20,000 people.

Heidi Holland was, and probably still is, a white African liberal who, in
the midst of Zimbabwe's current holocaust, is trying to understand the mind
of a liberator turned despot. To that end, Dinner with Mugabe is an
entertaining, well written, well researched and, in the end, completely
unsatisfying book.

It is not entirely Holland's fault, for she
has been where no other Mugabe profiler has been - diligently interviewing
relatives, school friends, priests, teachers and so forth - and finally
spending two-and-a-half hours with the man himself in a rare interview for a
white writer.

The conclusion? That the monster of modern Africa
was a lonely, alienated youth who grew up to be...er...a lonely, alienated
monster.

What Holland does provide is a portrait of yet another
barking mad African political leader who retains a camp affinity for British
pomp, ceremony and institutions (he loves cricket, for Chrissake) in the way
that both Bokassa and Amin did. But that is not enough.

The
biggest problem with Dinner with Mugabe is that there is little political
context to Holland's psychological detective work. She asks Mugabe if he is
a forgiving person and he, naturally, says he is and cites the fact that Ian
Smith lived on in Harare after independence when he may well have been put
to the sword - or the panga in this case.

What I really want to
know is, when Mugabe failed to forgive the Matabele for being members of a
rival tribe; did he order his Fifth Brigade soldiers to cut off the lips and
ears of innocent villagers in the Eighties or was that creative butchery on
the part of his soldiers?

Equally, did he understand that by
running the white farmers off the land and handing it to his inner circle of
idle kleptocrats that he would derail the economy for as long as he ruled?
And does he regard the total collapse of Zimbabwe a fair price for an extra,
say, decade in power?

As for good old Smithy, you really have to be
a devotee of African colonial history to be prepared to plough through this
rather self-regarding tome. However, it does provide insights into Mugabe
that are lacking in Heidi Holland's book.

These are borne out
of frequent meetings between the two men in the first 18 months of Mugabe's
rule.

If Smith is to be believed, in those early days of Zimbabwe,
Mugabe was a conciliator who seemed intent to put the colonial
confrontations behind him and move forward, a far cry from the Mugabe of
today who blames all his country's ills on the legacy of
colonialism.

However, this remains an unreliable memoir because it
is infused, in Rupert Cornwell's words, with the "self-righteous
paternalism" that was the mark of Ian Smith's Rhodesia.

I have
never believed the popular thesis that Smith's extremism begat Mugabe. I
think Mugabe would always have been there, even if the liberal Garfield Todd
had been the last colonial leader.

Post-colonial Africa seems to
have been doomed by a succession of corrupt, venal villains who have turned
this beautiful continent and its lovely people into a wasteland inhabited by
the wretched of the earth.

Until the rest of the world has the
courage to stand up to the likes of Mugabe with some of the enthusiasm with
which it stood up to Ian Smith, the African continent will continue its
downward journey into Hades.